WHY HAS MURDOCH RETURNED ARRESTED REPORTERS TO WORK?

Tom Watson, the Labor MP who has spearheaded the investigation into allegedly unethical and illegal activities by journalists working for Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers in the U.K., has raised questions about Murdoch’s decision to allow the 10 reporters working for The Sun who were arrested in connection with the scandal to return to work. In a letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan Howe, Watson asks whether their bail conditions contain the usual constraint barring the arrested reporters from making contact with one another. Moreover, he added, “The public will think it odd that the circumstances that lead to the bail of a number of high profile individuals will allow them to be in the proximity of evidence that can be tampered with.” Officials of News International, the umbrella group overseeing Murdoch’s news operations in the U.K., have not responded to Watson’s allegations.