LONDON, (Reuters) – British police are investigating an estimated 600 new allegations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World newspaper, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said yesterday.
The news comes at a sensitive time for the British media, with a divisive parliamentary vote on how to regulate Britain’s famously aggressive newspapers due to be held on Monday.
Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing for a form of self-regulation, while the opposition and his Liberal Democrat coalition partners want any new regulatory framework to be backed by new legislation.
Citing unnamed sources, the Guardian said new hacking information had been obtained from the phone records of an “insider” who is now being lined up as a prosecution witness, and that more details would emerge in court on Monday.
News International, the British newspaper arm of Murdoch’s News Corp media empire, was not immediately available for comment.
Scores of celebrities, politicians, crime victims and others have sued or demanded compensation from News International since hacking revelations emerged two years ago.
