UK prosecutors charge Daily Mirror, Sun reporters

LONDON — Four journalists from the Daily Mirror and Sun newspapers have been charged with bribing officials for information as part of an ongoing probe into British media wrongdoing, prosecutors said yesterday.

Former Daily Mirror journalist Greig Box Turnbull faces two charges of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office after he allegedly paid thousands of pounds to prison officers for information about high-profile inmates between 2005 and 2012, the Crown Prosecution Service said.

Nine people were charged in all on yesterday, including prison guards and a police officer. All of those charged will appear in court on Sept. 5.

Turnbull is the first journalist from the Mirror group of newspapers to be charged since Britain's phone hacking and media misconduct scandal broke two years ago, triggered by revelations that reporters at Rupert Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World tabloid regularly intercepted the voicemails of celebrities and other public figures.

While the scandal initially focused on Murdoch's News Corp. media empire, it has since spread to taint other media organizations.

Three journalists at Murdoch's tabloid The Sun — Graham Dudman, John Troup and Vince Soodin — are also charged with bribing police and other public officials for information, including seeking contact details for police witnesses. Troup and Dudman, a former managing editor at the paper, have since left the newspaper.

So far more than 30 people have been charged in the media wrongdoing scandal, including journalists, police officers and former newspaper executives.