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Robert Peston
Business editor
News of the World 'paid police for stories'
Andy Coulson resigned from his job at Downing Street in January
News international has uncovered e-mails that indicate payments were made to the police by the News of the World, during the editorship from 2003-7 of Andy Coulson.
The e-mails, which appear to show that Mr Coulson authorised the payments, have been passed to the police.
I tried to contact Mr Coulson and left a message on his voicemail, but so far he has made no comment on the new allegations.
The disclosure is a significant development in the extraordinary story of how the News of the World and other newspapers obtained stories in the frenzied climate of a few years ago.
It has an important political dimension, in that Mr Coulson went on to work for David Cameron as director of communications at 10 Downing Street. Mr Coulson resigned from that post in January.
It also shows that the police investigation into alleged illicit techniques used by the News of the World to obtain stories goes much wider than an examination of the hacking of mobile phones.
Update: I obtained this story in a circuitous route, when I heard that Vanity Fair was planning to publish a story on alleged payments to police.
As it happens, Vanity Fair hadn't published by the time I went live on the Ten O'Clock News.
But the magazine has now published its story and you can read it here.
And here is a statement that News International provided to Vanity Fair in response to its story:
"As a result of enquiries it is correct to state that new information has recently been provided to the police.
"As News International and News Group Newspapers has reiterated many times, full and continuing cooperation has been provided to the police since the current investigation started in January 2011.
"Well understood arrangements are in place to ensure that any material of importance to which they are entitled is provided to them. We cannot comment any further due to the ongoing investigations."
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Comment number 176.
Boris6th July 2011 - 10:56
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 175.
paul mawer6th July 2011 - 11:38
In a democracy the press should keep the police and politicians in moral accountancy ,the politicians keep police and the press in account,police keep the press and politicians in account. Once this is broken the question is what is not being reported but used as leverage
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Comment number 174.
Whistling Neil6th July 2011 - 11:43
161 Two wrongs don't make a right. Maintain the moral high ground by doing your civic duty even if you have to hold your nose whilst doing it (metaphorically, since literally might wind them up), such don't help the police sttitudes leads to those areas where you live at the whim of thugs and criminals. Not all police are rotten.
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Comment number 173.
nick6th July 2011 - 11:42
Rupert Murdoch is beginning to look like Citizen Kane, I think for the safety of our democracy we shouldnt hand over the controlling interest in BskyB. The culture of an organization is defined from the top down and im sure that News International is not fit to own such a large chunk of our media.
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Comment number 172.
Whistling Neil6th July 2011 - 11:37
147 I remember it well, given this story it is starting to look more like it was a documentary rather than a satire.
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Comments 5 of 176