The Independent has claimed that News International’s daily red top The Sun is ‘threatened by an unprecedented crisis’following the arrest of veteran reporter Jamie Pyatt last week.
Pyatt, 48, was arrested on Friday and released on bail without charge by detectives investigating illegal payments to police officers. He is the first Sun employee to be held in connection with either Scotland Yard’s probes into inappropriate police payments or phone-hacking.
The Independent today reports that Sun editor Dominic Mohan held a meeting with staff on Monday to ‘rally the paper’s editorial team following fears that journalists are being made scapegoats for wider problems within the News Corp media empire”.
Mohan reportedly tried to assure staff by telling them he had met with Rupert Murdoch to discuss the paper’s future, when the News Corp chairman said he was “up for the fight”.
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The Independent report said:
The prospect of further arrests has generated worry among The Sun’s senior journalists, several of whom have been interviewed as part of an internal investigation being conducted by the legal firm Linklaters, which was appointed by News Corp’s Management & Standards Committee (MSC), which is reviewing practices across News International.
Pyatt’s arrest on Friday has shocked colleagues. “They have opened up a Pandora’s Box and there may be other trails. They might not be able to stop,” said one journalist.
According to The Independent the speech has heightened fears that the title could be up put up for sale.
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