Former News Corp. Executives to be Charged in Bribery Probe
LONDON — British prosecutors said they will charge two former top executives of News Corp’s U.K. newspaper unit and others with crimes as part of a bribery probe, expanding their criminal prosecution to include journalists at the company’s tabloid The Sun.
Prosecutors said they will charge Rebekah Brooks, former editor of The Sun who later rose to lead the U.K. newspaper unit, with “conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.” The charge relates to £100,000 ($159,000) in bribes allegedly paid by The Sun to a former Defense Ministry official for information which “formed the basis of a series of news stories” in The Sun, the Crown Prosecution Service said in a statement Tuesday. The defense ministry official, Bettina Jordan-Barber, and John Kay, who prosecutors described as the Chief Reporter at the Sun between 1990 and 2011, will also be charged with the same crime, prosecutors said.
