This morning the Metropolitain police returned for a second round of arrests in operation Elveden. Once again these arrests are at the Sun, Murdochs UK daily tabloid, not at the News of the World, the allready closed sister paper. and once again un-named Murdoch employees are complaining of a Witch hunt.
Who has been arrested? well according to the BBC
BBC News - Eight people held over payments inquiry
Five Sun employees are among eight arrested over alleged corrupt payments to police and public officials.
A Surrey Police officer, member of the armed forces and Ministry of Defence employee were also arrested.
Picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker, reporter John Sturgis and associate editor Geoff Webster were held, the BBC understands.
other sources are reporting that one of the arestees is The Deputy editor, who is in Daily contact with the Editor. It looks as if the police are slowly inching up the corporate ladder while working through the mound of documentation provided by the Management and Standards comittee set up to clean up.
Private eye (the UK media and political scandal and gossip sheet, that has one of the strongest comittments to investigative journalism) has detailed parts of the last round of arrests amongst which are some interesting details.
Private Eye | Official Site
Operation Elveden, the Met’s investigation into illegal payments to police, was tipped off by supergrass Will Lewis and his colleagues on News International’s management and standards committee, which handed over a stack of incriminating paperwork last autumn including an expenses claim rather carelessly made out for “£500 for paying police officer”.
Further down the same article we have an intriguing suggestion that the Murdoch papers are fighting back, and are willing to sacrifice their sources in order to do so. something that should be enough to destroy any trust in going to deal with that paper
Private Eye | Official Site
For three months his newspaper resisted a court order requiring it to give Inspector Knacker copies of a private email correspondence between Chris Huhne’s ex-wife Vicky Pryce and ST political editor Isabel Oakeshott. On 20 January, without explanation, it suddenly agreed to hand over Pryce’s emails after all. Given the lack of fuss or outrage, some people assumed Pryce herself must have consented to the paper’s U-turn. Not so. Pryce tells friends that she certainly did not consent and finds the Sunday Times’s failure to protect its source “a strange way to behave”.
The effect on Pryce may be devastating. Director of public prosecutions Keir Starmer said last week that the “new material” supplied from Wapping allowed prosecutors to declare that they had “sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce for perverting the course of justice”.
It's looking more and more like the Sun on Sunday, the supposed replacement paper for the News of the World isn't going to happen in the close future.
Update
The Guardian has a copy of the email written by the chief exec of Newsgroup Newspapers to the staff of the Sun
Full text: News Int CEO's email to staff after Sun arrests | Media | guardian.co.uk
Dear colleagues,
I am very saddened that a further five colleagues fromThe Sun have been arrested this morning by the Police. It has already been widely reported the individuals involved are Geoff Webster, John Edwards, John Kay, John Sturgis and Nick Parker.
This news is difficult for everyone on The Sun and particularly for those of you who work closely with those involved. Some of the individuals arrested have been instrumental in breaking important stories about public bodies, for example the scandal of our under resourced troops in Iraq.
ooo made the reclist (thanks helen for pointing it out) whats the form in this situation?
Teary accepatnce speech? thanks makeup artist , family and pets?