Police re-arrest former NoW managing editor

THE former managing editor of the News of the World was re-arrested yesterday on suspicion of phone hacking and inappropriate payments to police, according to reports.

A 71-year-old man was released on bail after being questioned at a London police station, Scotland Yard said. The suspect is thought to be Stuart Kuttner, who resigned from the paper in July 2009.

Kuttner resigned shortly before the Guardian disclosed the NoW paid out over £1 million to settle cases which threatened to reveal evidence of alleged phone hacking, but he has denied his resignation was related to the issue.

Meanwhile, lawyers for Rupert Murdoch’s News International are conducting a broad inquiry into reporting practices at the company’s British newspaperse.

Attorneys for Linklaters, the London law firm leading the probe, will be looking for anything US government investigators might construe as evidence the firm violated American law, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits corrupt payments to foreign officials.

In addition to conducting interviews with selected journalists, lawyers will look at email and financial records, said a source.

Separately, Rupert Murdoch and his son James are to be questioned about the hacking scandal under oath in the British High Court.

A second source close to the company said that just because the internal inquiry is examining reporting standards across Murdoch’s British papers, this does not mean there is evidence that inappropriate activity occurred at News International’s currently operating British properties.

News Corp acknowledges a review is under way.

Journalists from The Sun, have already been interviewed for the internal investigation and interviews with journalists from The Sunday Times are to begin in September.