MURDOCH’S U.K. NEWS CHIEF ASKED TO REVEAL PAYMENTS TO POLICE BY REPORTERS

The head of News International, the British news division of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, has been officially asked to disclose details of alleged payments made by the company’s newspapers to British police officers. The request, by Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, came after John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (better known as Scotland Yard) testified that his officers have begun researching a statement made in 2003 by Rebekah Brooks, then the editor of The Sun and now CEO of News International, in which she acknowledged that such payments had been made. In his letter to Brooks, Vaz requested that she provide him by next Monday with the following information: “The number of police paid by The Sun newspaper whilst you were editor. How much these police officers were paid. When the practice ceased.” The latest development comes as Vaz’s committee looks deeper into complaints that Scotland Yard, in an effort to court favor with reporters for another Murdoch newspaper, the News of the world failed to investigate apparent evidence that some reporters for the paper had routinely hacked into the voicemails of politicians and celebrities. In reporting on the new developments, Ian Dunt, editor of politics.co.uk, commented, “Ms. Brooks is considered one of the most influential figures in the Murdoch empire and her involvement in the ongoing row will be treated as a sign that the contagion of phone-hacking at News of the World is starting to spread to the entire business.”