Rupert Murdoch to talk to upset UK tabloid staff

[February 17, 2012]  LONDON (AP) -- Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is heading into talks with his British newspapers Friday amid a simmering staff revolt and U.K. police inquiries into alleged misconduct by journalists.

Murdoch, who flew into Britain late Thursday on a private jet, was to tour the newsroom of his scandal-hit tabloid The Sun and hold meetings at the London complex that also houses his other papers, The Times and The Sunday Times, according to a person familiar with his movements who requested anonymity to discuss the mogul's plans.

The visit follows last week's arrest of five senior staff at The Sun in an inquiry into the alleged payment of bribes to police and defense officials for information. A total of 10 current and former staff at The Sun -- Britain's biggest selling newspaper -- have been questioned over the allegations. None has so far been charged.

A phone-hacking scandal has engulfed British media and police since last July, when it emerged that journalists at Murdoch's News of the World tabloid routinely eavesdropped on the private communications of celebrities, sports figures, politicians and those in the public eye.

Murdoch closed the 168-year-old tabloid, many journalists have been arrested and several top executives have resigned. More than 60 victims have successfully sued the newspaper for breaking into their phones and other violations.

However, in his address at The Sun, Murdoch is expected to repeat an assurance made to executives last weekend that he had no plans to close down the newspaper he acquired in 1969.

Some staff at News International, the British arm of News Corp., have expressed alarm after both the company and police confirmed that the latest arrests came after executives at the paper supplied information to detectives. Staff have said they are worried that their confidential sources have been compromised.

Police have extended the scope of the bribery inquiry beyond police officers to include public officials in a number of fields, and are continuing inquiries into alleged phone and email hacking. Police have countered criticism that they are unfairly targeting the press by citing the "the seriousness of the allegations currently under investigation and the significant number of victims."

After long insisting that wrongdoing had been confined to a single, previously jailed reporter, Murdoch's News Corp. appointed a management and standards committee last summer to investigate the extent of malpractice at his British newspaper subsidiary.

The committee, which reports to News Corp. executive vice president Joel Klein, has been scrutinizing millions of old emails and other documents and has been turning over relevant findings to police.

Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of Britain's National Union of Journalists, said some reporters accuse Murdoch of "trying to pin the blame on individual journalists, hoping that a few scalps will salvage his corporate reputation."

Trevor Kavanagh, The Sun's associate editor, said this week many staff are uneasy about the activities of the management standards committee.

"There's certainly a mood of unhappiness that the company -- certain parts of the company ... are actually boasting that they're sending information to the police," he told the BBC.

Investigations into illegality at the News of the World, The Sun and other newspapers has already led to a raft of arrests -- including police officers, executives and well-known British tabloid journalists.

Two top London police officers and several senior Murdoch executives have resigned in the scandal, which also prompted Andy Coulson -- a former News of The World editor -- to quit as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications director.

[Associated Press; By DAVID STRINGER]

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