Completely Irrelevant.

Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour opposition party, has called for an independent review of newspaper practices and regulation, following the admission by News International that journalists did indeed hack into the voice mails of politicians and celebrities. 

What a pity the Labour Party did not call for the same kind of enquiry during 2003 when Rebekah Brooks, former editor of the Sun newspaper, was asked by a Parliamentary select committee if the police had ever been paid by journalists for information. Her response, “We have paid police for information in the past.” She was then asked “And will you do it again?” Her reply “It depends.” 

It beggars belief, paying police for information was illegal in 2003 as it is in 2011, yet Ms Brooks, who was surely aware that this was an illegal practice, openly admits that her journalists not only engaged in this criminality, but may do so again. 

Meanwhile, the argument regarding media plurality and News Corp's bid for full takeover of BskyB continues. Jeremy Hunt, culture Secretary, argues that the phone hacking scandal is 'not relevant' to News Corp's bid. 

As News Corp is the parent company of News International, it is relevant. When the former editor of the Sun, now chief executive of News International which owns 37% of the national media already, admits that police were paid for information by her journalists, it's entirely relevant. 

What is also entirely relevant is the fact that the company told the Press Complaints Commission that the internal investigation had revealed 'no further wrongdoing', which we now know to be untrue, and the Met police told Parliament that there were no backhanders...sorry.. grounds for reopening the case regarding the phone hacking affair.

In the meantime however, Ms Brooks has backtracked on those comments, stating that her remarks in 2003, were general in nature and that she has no knowledge of specific cases where police were paid by journalists. Talk about closing the door after the horse has bolted... 

This recent assertion of ethical behaviour appears to have inspired other employees of the Murdoch press, such as Jim Gaines, managing editor of The Daily, Murdochs iPad-only newspaper, is to join Thompson Reuters as...Ethics and Standards Editor…