Three more arrests in UK corruption probe
By Laura Smith-Spark, CNN
April 19, 2012 — Updated 1059 GMT (1859 HKT)
Unraveling ‘Murdoch’s scandal’
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: One of those arrested is a journalist at The Sun paper, News International says
- Another of the suspects is a former member of the armed forces, police say
- London police are running three probes into alleged phone and e-mail hacking and police bribery
- The latest arrests are the result of information provided by News Corp.
London (CNN) — Three people, one of them a military veteran and another a journalist, were arrested Thursday in connection with an investigation into alleged bribery, police who are also investigating claims of phone hacking said.
The arrests are the latest in a series in connection with three linked police inquiries into alleged phone and e-mail hacking and illegal payments to police.
A 36-year-old man was arrested at his home address in Kent on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and suspicion of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office, police said, and is being questioned.
News International confirmed that he is a journalist for The Sun, a daily tabloid newspaper owned by News International, a British arm of the News Corp. empire.
A 42-year-old man and 38-year-old woman also were arrested at their home address in Lancashire in northern England.
Explain it to me: UK tabloid scandal
Should journalists ever buy stories?
Bernstein criticizes Murdoch’s standards
The man, a former member of the armed forces, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in a public office and the woman on suspicion of aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office, police said.
Both addresses are being searched.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the arrests were the result of information provided to the force by News Corp.’s Management Standards Committee, an internal panel set up by the media giant to probe suspected misconduct.
“It relates to suspected payments to a public official and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately,” the police statement said of the information.
Thursday’s arrests come a day after the Crown Prosecution Service said London police had asked its prosecutors to file charges against at least eight people in connection with phone hacking by journalists.
The suspects include at least one journalist, a police officer and six other people, the Crown Prosecution Service said, declining to name them.
Dozens of people have been arrested in the phone hacking investigation, which has been running more than a year, but no one has been charged.
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. shut down its British Sunday tabloid, The News of the World, last summer after public outrage at the scale of illegal eavesdropping its journalists did in search of stories.
The defunct newspaper has been accused of hacking the voice mail of crime victims, politicians, celebrities and veterans.
Two parliamentary committees and an independent inquiry led by a judge are also probing the scandal.
CNN’s Claudia Rebaza contributed to this report.
Part of complete coverage on
The Leveson inquiry is a British government-backed inquiry into illegal eavesdropping and bribery by journalists.
April 3, 2012 — Updated 1445 GMT (2245 HKT)
Before the hacking scandal, James Murdoch was widely regarded as the heir apparent to his father Rupert’s powerful empire.
December 20, 2011 — Updated 1312 GMT (2112 HKT)
Atika Shubert looks back at how phone hacking scandal rocked Britain and Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in 2011.
February 16, 2012 — Updated 2312 GMT (0712 HKT)
CNN’s Dan Rivers reports on the latest scandal for News Corp. involving what appears to be cash for stories.
November 30, 2011 — Updated 1421 GMT (2221 HKT)
Alistair Campbell says UK newspapers print “complete nonsense” to support their owners’ agendas.
Rupert Murdoch is the last of a dying breed: An old-fashioned press baron, a tough businessman with a hunger for the next big story.
– Updated GMT ( HKT)
Rupert Murdoch is facing a two-front war. He will probably escape criminal prosecution in the United Kingdom, unless some senior employee yet turns on him.
UK lawmakers are doing the right thing in severing their ties to the Murdoch empire, says academic Steven Barnett.
September 1, 2011 — Updated 2307 GMT (0707 HKT)
Former Telegraph publisher Conrad Black sounds off on Rupert Murdoch and calls him a “bad man.”
Original link:
Recent Comments