LONDON // Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp, will fly to London from New York in the next few days in a bid to reassure staff that he has no plans to close the The Sun following a second wave of arrests of journalists at the tabloid.
Britain's largest-selling newspaper has become entangled in the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure last summer of its sister Sunday paper, the News of the World.
Staff at The Sun, which sells more than 2.7 million copies a day, are livid because the arrested journalists were detained on the basis of information supplied to the police by the newspaper's management team set up to carry out an internal investigation after the hacking scandal.
On Saturday, five Sun journalists, a police officer, armed forces officer and ministry of defence civil servant were arrested over allegations of improper payments to public officials.
Two weeks earlier, four current and former Sun journalists and another police officer were arrested over similar allegations. All have been released on bail without charge.
"Everyone here is truly fed up," one Sun reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday. "These are respected journalists who have done some great work over the years and who are now being stitched up by our own management.
"If you went around arresting every [British] reporter who had paid people for information, including cops and public officials, our jails would be bulging. And don't forget, this isn't money paid out of a reporter's own pocket - this is money which has either been advanced or reimbursed with management approval."
The post-hacking upheavals at News International, News Corp's UK newspaper division, has led to a wholesale change in the management at The Sun. There has been widespread speculation in the British media that Mr Murdoch could close The Sun, which he bought in 1969 and whose success has financed much of News Corp's subsequent expansion around the world, to stem rising criticism.
His trip to News International's headquarters in Wapping, in East London, this week is designed to assure the staff he has no such plans.
Tom Mockridge, chief executive of News International, sent a memo to staff following Saturday's arrests in which he said: "You should know that I have had a personal assurance today from Rupert Murdoch about his total commitment to continue to own and publish The Sun newspaper."
News International's Management and Standards Committee (MSC) was set up last year to conduct an internal probe of phone hacking and bribes paid to police.
Members of the MSC, who are working in conjunction with the police as they review millions of emails and other documents, include senior members of management and independent lawyers.
Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said: "Journalists are reeling at seeing five more of their colleagues thrown to the wolves in what many sense to be a witch-hunt.
"Once again Rupert Murdoch is trying to pin the blame on individual journalists hoping that a few scalps will salvage his corporate reputation," said Tom Watson, a member of the parliamentary culture and media committee, which is investigating the hacking scandal. He said the latest arrests could lead to News International executives being recalled to give further evidence. Rupert Murdoch and his son James have already testified before the committee.
"If they've got evidence that shows that, in fact, there is a reasonable suspicion that police were paid by News International, then parliament needs to know about it," Mr Watson, a Labour MP, told Channel 4 news.