Journalists under scrutiny for allegedly paying police

Comment by News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks that journalists ‘had paid police for information’ could result in an investigation by Scotland Yard Comments made by Rebekah Brooks – the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s News International – could trigger a criminal investigation by Scotland Yard, one of its most senior officers confirmed on Friday. Cressida Dick, an assistant commander at the Metropolitan Police, wrote to tell MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee that the force was examining whether police should begun a full inquiry. It follows Brooks’ statement to a Commons committee in 2003 that journalists “had paid police for information in the past” – which prompted a short enquiry by the Home Affairs Committee this year. The committee chairman Keith Vaz asked Brooks to explain her statement this year. She replied that: “If, in doing so, I gave the impression that I had knowledge of any specific cases, I can assure you that this was not my intention.” Friday’s letter from Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick says police planned “to conduct a scoping exercise to establish whether there are now any grounds for beginning a criminal investigation”, following the 2003 comments. Rebekah Brooks was editor of the News of the World from May 2000 until January 2003, leaving the post for the editorship of the Sun newspaper three months before she appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport committee. She became chief executive of News International, the company behind Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspapers, in 2009. More to come … Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk

Posted by on April 15, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.