RUPERT Murdoch was said to be ready to fly to Britain as his global media empire was plunged into one of the deepest crises in its history with the arrest in London of five senior journalists and executives from The Sun newspaper on corruption charges.
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The arrests spread alarm and anger through the newsroom at The Sun, Britain's best selling newspaper, amid fears that Murdoch could close the paper as he did its sister Sunday newspaper, The News of the World.
A serving British armed forces officer and his wife, who is a Ministry of Defence official, were also arrested.
The Murdoch conglomerate has stumped up tens of millions of dollars in compensation payments in an attempt to contain the phone hacking scandal that besets the empire, but the impact of the latest arrests in the highly sensitive areas of the Defence Ministry and the military are expected to inflame opposition to Murdoch and News Ltd in Britain.
The dramatic escalation of the police investigation could have a significant negative knock-on impact on moves by US investigators probing activities by employees of News Ltd in the US.
However, Mr Murdoch moved to reassure staff that the paper would not close and a statement later from the company assured staff of support as the company faced its ''greatest challenge.''
But the anger was almost palpable among journalists because the arrests were reportedly the result of millions of emails that News Ltd had given to the police investigation into the phone hacking scandal and payments to police. Paying police for information is illegal in Britain.
Journalists and the National Union of Journalists interpreted the arrests - 10 staff from The Sun so far - as tantamount to staff being thrown to the wolves in an attempt by the company to distance itself from practices that were said to have been widespread across all British media for decades.
The five arrested and later released on bail were deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis.
Others arrested in relation to the scandal included a police officer, a Ministry of Defence employee and a member of the armed forces. They were later bailed on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy.
The immediate reaction from the The Sun's editor, Dominic Mohan, was a pledge to continue editing the paper with his ''brilliant staff,'' while News International chief executive Tom Mockridge said he was saddened that colleagues had been arrested.
The company had provided legal support to those interviewed by police, he said.
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