LONDON, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- An investigation of police corruption led to the arrest of four current and former employees of the British tabloid The Sun and a police officer, officials say.
The Guardian reported the Metropolitan police also searched the London headquarters of News International, part of News Corp., for possible evidence of journalists' payments to police.
Sources told The Guardian the early morning raid was not connected to voicemail interception in the hacking scandal but related only to alleged paying of police for stories.
Three of the four current and former Sun employees reportedly had held senior editorial positions at the newspaper and one is a reporter, The Guardian said.
The arrests came after police had received information from News Corp.'s internal investigations unit, the Management and Standards Committee, set up after the phone-hacking scandal surfaced last July by Rupert Murdoch, The Guardian said. The committee operates independently of News International.
In a statement, News Corp. said: "News Corp. made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news-gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated. It commissioned the Management and Standards Committee to undertake a review of all News International titles, regardless of cost, and to proactively cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities if potentially relevant information arose at those titles."
