Sun journalists accused of bribing police officials for stories

London, Feb 28 (ANI): Journalists at Britain's popular tabloid The Sun, paid thousands of pounds to a network of serving officers for stories, it has emerged.

The police chief leading the investigation into phone hacking, told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards that there exists a "culture" at The Sun of paying "a corrupt network" of public officials for stories.

Sue Akers, the senior Scotland Yard officer investigating corruption at News International, revealed that the payments, which totalled 80,000 pounds in the case of one public official, were sanctioned by senior executives at the newspaper,

In an example of the close relationship between officers and the newspaper publisher, it was revealed that Rebekah Brooks, when editor of The Sun, was apprised of the hacking investigation by a police mole who was working on the original inquiry in 2006, The Telegraph reports.

The inquiry panel was told that the police "deliberately failed" to pursue the investigation because of their relationship with News International.

The dramatic disclosures at the Leveson Inquiry mainly surrounded The Sun, but the Metropolitan Police were also subjected to a series of uncomfortable revelations.

Internal police logs revealed that the Metropolitan Police knew almost immediately that hacking went wider than one reporter at News International, but failed to widen the scope of the inquiry. (ANI)