Two journalists arrested as part of Operation Elveden
Two tabloid journalists are arrested by detectives investigating corrupt payments to public officials as part of the Metropolitan Police’s wider phone hacking inquiry.
Scotland Yard said a 37-year man was detained at his home in Kent and a 34-year-old man held at his home in south-east London.
Justin Penrose, crime correspondent of the Sunday Mirror, and Tom Savage, deputy news editor of the Daily Star Sunday, have both been named by their employers as the two journalists that have been arrested.
Scotland Yard has also confirmed that two business premises in London are being searched by police.
The two journalists are being questioned at separate police stations on suspicion of conspiracy to corrupt and of conspiracy to cause misconduct in a public office, the Met said.
A spokesman said: “Today’s arrests relate to suspected payments to a public official and are not about seeking journalists to reveal confidential sources in relation to information that has been obtained legitimately.”
Scotland Yard later said the 34-year-old man had been bailed to a date in October pending further inquiries.
‘Alleged payments’
A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “We have been informed by the police that Justin Penrose was arrested this morning on suspicion of alleged payments to public officials. We are co-operating fully with the police.”
A further statement added that the police now have in their possession various items from Justin Penrose’s desk including his computer, following a prearranged meeting at 11am.
Mr Penrose has worked for the Sunday Mirror since 2004, and was made crime correspondent in 2006.
In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, Mr Penrose said the newspaper never paid police for stories.
In a written statement, addressing the question of what ethical issues need to be held in mind by a journalist communicating with the police, he said:
“The main ethical issue is that we never pay police officers for stories or seek to put the police in a position where they feel that they should provide information to us in exchange for anything that they consider that they are getting from us.”
‘Climate of fear’
He also warned that there was a “climate of fear” stopping officers talking to the press.
He wrote: “I believe that officers should be allowed to speak to the press about their cases without the fear that they are going to be accused of corruption. At the moment there is a climate of fear in which officers are too scared to talk to the press.”
A spokesman for Express Newspapers, publisher of the Daily Star Sunday, said: “We can confirm that one of our reporters was arrested this morning as part of Operation Elveden and we are working closely with the authorities in relation to this matter.”
The statement adds that the newspaper group was working with the police on their enquiries.
The latest arrests mean 41 people have been arrested by detectives on Operation Elveden, the investigation into suspected corrupt payments to public officials.
The operation is being run alongside Operation Weeting, the Scotland Yard probe into phone-hacking.