NEWS CORP EXEC BACKS OFF FROM EARLIER CLAIM

News International CEO Rebekah Brooks maintains that her testimony to a committee of Parliament in 2003, when she was the editor of the London Sun, that police had been paid for information was misinterpreted. In a letter to the Home Affairs committee, which had asked her to provide details about such payments, Brooks said that she was merely commenting “generally on the widely held belief that payments had been made in the past to police officers. 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.” Published reports, however, noted that at the original hearing, Brooks, when asked whether such payments would continue, replied, “It depends.” On Monday night, Chris Bryant, the Labor MP who questioned Brooks in 2003, told the London Independent, “We were gobsmacked [flabbergasted] at the time by how direct Rebekah Brooks had been. Now I am completely gobsmacked again.”