FOUR MORE NEWS CORP REPORTERS ARRESTED

Opening a new phase in the investigation that began with allegations of voicemail hacking by reporters for the now defunct London tabloid News of the World, police on Saturday arrest four current and former reporters for the Sun, another London newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch. A serving police officer was also arrested as Scotland Yard expanded its investigation into allegations that police had accepted bribes for information used in Sun exposés. Those arrested included the newspaper’s executive editor, Fergus Shanahan and former managing editor Graham Dudman. In a surprise early-morning raid at News International’s headquarters in the Wapping area of east London, police searched offices and carted away potential evidence. News Corp released a statement saying that it was “proactively” cooperating with police and suggested that it had provided relevant information that led to Saturday’s arrests. Tom Mockridge, CEO of News Corp’s U.K. unit News International, said in an email to staff that the company “is confronting past mistakes and is making fundamental changes about how we operate which are essential for our business.” For its part Scotland Yard said that its action was “the result of information provided to police by News Corporation’s management and standards committee” and “relates to suspected payments to police officers and is not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”