Police attempt to obtain secret Rupert Murdoch tape
Detectives from Scotland Yard are attempting to obtain the secret recording of Rupert Murdoch raging against police "incompetence" and saying payments to public officials from journalists were part of "the culture of Fleet Street".
According to the Guardian, a police offer involved in the Operation Elveden investigation into illicit payments from journalists has made a formal request to Exaro News to hand over the tape.
MP Tom Watson last week called for a police inquiry into Murdoch's comments, saying the audio and transcript of the media mogul's candid conversation with Sun staff "should be in the hands of the police".
DCI Laurence Smith told Exaro News, the investigations website that broke the story, that the police would seek a production order forcing it to disclose the recording if it did not do so voluntarily, the Guardian reports.
Exaro editor-in-chief Mark Watts told the newspaper he had not handed over any material to police and did not understand what detectives were seeking to get hold of when all the detail from the tapes will be published online anyway.