‘Sustained criminality’ investigated at The Sun

According to the Reuters news agency, a source with knowledge of the investigation into alleged payments to police and public officials said it involved tens of thousands of pounds a year, for several years. The source is quoted as saying “This is not about sources or expenses, this is an investigation into serious suspected criminality over a sustained period”.

The investigation, codenamed Operation Elveden, was sparked after News Corp, which owns the Sun, as well as the Times and the Sunday Times, voluntarily handed information to the Metropolitan police. That led to the arrest of nine current and former Sun journalists over the last three weeks, along with two police officers, a serving member of the Armed Forces, and a Defence official.

Staff backlash

The decision to pass on the information has sparked a fierce backlash among staff at the paper, who’ve accused management of sparking a witch hunt against journalists by revealing their sources. Rival papers, like the Mirror, have talked of a “full scale revolt” by reporters at the Sun, who they said had accused Mr Murdoch of “hanging his own staff out to dry”.

On Monday the Sun’s associate editor Trevor Kavanagh declared that his colleagues were “being treated like members of an organised crime gang.”, and said that staff at the paper felt “under siege” after the arrest of their colleagues. The Times also raised concern about the risk to journalists’ sources, saying the investigation had not considered “whether the publication of stories based on their information was in the public interest.”

Legal challenge?

Today, in an article in the Times, the leading human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC called on journalists to use the Human Rights Act to protect their sources. The Guardian claimed that Mr Robertson was being approached by the National Union of Journalists on behalf of Sun journalists, to launch a legal challenge against News Corporation’s Management and Standards Committee, although there’s been no comment from Mr Robertson or his chambers. But much of the anger at the Sun is directed at New Corporation’s Managment and Standards Committee (MSC) – set up by Mr Murdoch in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. It’s been looking into some 300 million emails, payment records and expenses claims, with the aim of uncovering any unlawful activity.

Protecting sources

Michelle Stanistreet, from the National Union of Journalists, said the union had been approached by a group of Sun journalists and were looking for ways to support them, “including discussing legal redress”. She said if journalists were not allowed to offer protection to their sources – “often brave people who are raising their heads above the parapet to disclose information – then the free press in the UK is dead.”

Mr Murdoch is believed to be flying to London tomorrow to speak to staff at the Sun. in an effort to rebuild morale and assure them that he’s got no plans to close or sell off the newspaper. But given the mood among journalists on the paper who feel they’re being ‘thrown to the wolves’ – he could well face a very hostile reception.