BRITISH POLICE SEARCHED the offices of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspapers today after arresting a police officer and four current and former staff of his tabloid The Sun as part of an investigation into police bribery by journalists.
The arrests spread the scandal over tabloid wrongdoing — which has already caused the closure of one tabloid, the News of the World — to a second Murdoch newspaper.
London’s Metropolitan Police said two men aged 48 and one aged 56 were arrested on suspicion of corruption early in the morning at homes in and around London. A 42-year-old man was detained later at a London police station.
Murdoch’s News Corp. confirmed that all four were current or former Sun employees. According to the BBC, they are former deputy editor Fergus Shanahan, former managing editor Graham Dudman, crime editor Mike Sullivan and news head Chris Pharo.
A fifth man, a 29-year-old police officer, was arrested at the London station where he works.
The investigation into whether reporters illegally paid police for information is running parallel to a police inquiry into phone hacking by Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World.
Officers were searching the men’s homes and the east London headquarters of the media mogul’s British newspapers for evidence.
Police said today’s arrests were made as a result of information provided by the Management and Standards Committee of Murdoch’s News Corp.
News Corp. said it was cooperating with police.
“News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated,” it said in a statement.
A dozen people have now been arrested in the bribery probe, though none has yet been charged.
They include former Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of Murdoch’s News International, ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson — who is also Prime Minister David Cameron’s former communications chief — and journalists from the News of the World and The Sun.
Two of the London police force’s top officers resigned in the wake of the revelation last July that the News of the World had eavesdropped on the cell phone voicemail messages of celebrities, athletes, politicians and even an abducted teenager in its quest for stories.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old tabloid, and the scandal has triggered a continuing public inquiry into media ethics and the relationship between the press, police and politicians.
An earlier police investigation failed to find evidence hacking went beyond one reporter and a private investigator, but News Corp. has now acknowledged it was much more widespread.
Last week the company agreed to pay damages to 37 hacking victims, including actor Jude Law, soccer star Ashley Cole and British politician John Prescott.
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