Inquiry Leader Says Murdoch Papers Paid Off British Officials
By SARAH LYALL
Published: February 27, 2012
LONDON The officer leading a police investigation into Rupert Murdochs British newspapers said on Monday that reporters and editors at The Sun tabloid had over the years paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for information not only to police officers but also to a network of corrupted officials in the military and the government.
The officer, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, said that e-mail records obtained by the police showed that there was a culture at The Sun of illegal payments that were authorized at a very senior level within the newspaper and involved frequent and sometimes significant sums of money paid to public officials in the Health Ministry and the prison service, among other agencies.
The testimony was a sharp new turn in a months-long judicial investigation of the behavior of Murdoch-owned and other newspapers, known as the Leveson inquiry. It detailed financial transactions that showed both the scale and the scope of alleged bribes, the covert nature of their payment and the seniority of newspaper executives accused of involvement.
The testimony may prove damaging to the News Corporation, the American-based parent of Mr. Murdochs media empire, if it gives ammunition to the F.B.I. and other agencies that are investigating the company for possible prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/28/world/europe/murdoch-hacking-inquiry-expands-to-uk-officials.html
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)Keeping the viewers from such a sensationalistic story such as this, tells me you are in the business of not showing the truth, but picking and choosing what to show for an agenda. Now the question becomes, whose agenda?
Are you all doing as Murdoch has done? Hmmmm?
Maybe Murdoch knows too much about what has been done in other media networks, and they are all to afraid to stick their necks out, because he would just spill the beans.
Gregorian
(23,867 posts)Let the world spiral down, down, down.
DCKit
(18,541 posts)Wanna bet she comes out with "just doing my job" later on?
Hey bad cops, she's making you look like shit.
T_i_B
(14,734 posts)Bit of a bizarre thing for the Met to do!
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24039246-rebekahs-gift-horse-from-met-shows-its-close-ties-to-murdoch-newspapers.do
The 43-year-old former News International chief executive rode the retired horse for a year at her farm in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire before it was put out to pasture. The loan, made in 2008 while Lord Blair was Met Commissioner, is likely to raise fresh questions about the close relationship between the police and the Murdoch media empire.
The inquiry also heard yesterday how the Met tipped off Brooks in 2006 about the original phone-hacking investigation at the News of the World, where she was editor from 2000 to 2003. It has been claimed that Brooks, who was forced to resign from News International in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, was a horse-riding companion of Prime Minister David Cameron but she denies this.
Lord Blair said he was not aware of the gift. Brooks's spokesman, David Wilson, from Bell Pottinger confirmed the deal took place. "Rebekah acted as a foster carer for the horse."
muriel_volestrangler
(101,146 posts)She is currently in custody in a south London police station.
It is the 23rd arrest as part of Operation Elveden and she is the 11th Sun employee to be arrested.
The remit of Operation Elveden has widened to include the investigation of evidence uncovered in relation to suspected corruption involving public officials who are not police officers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17221237
She's been there 6 years: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9115688/The-Suns-defence-editor-latest-journalist-arrested.html - so this puts it purely in the Rebekah Brooks/Dominic Mohan editorships.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Unthinkable, right Corporate McPravda?