LONDON, February3, 2012(AFP): British police are investigating The Times over claims that it hacked emails, it emerged Thursday, as the newspaper’s editor was recalled for a second appearance before an inquiry into press ethics.James Harding, the editor of the Rupert Murdoch-owned upmarket daily, told the Leveson Inquiry last month that one of his journalists had accessed the email account of a police blogger to try to expose his identity. The inquiry, set up in the wake of the phone hacking scandal at the Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid last year, is now recalling Harding to give evidence again next week, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. The investigation into The Times by London’s Metropolitan Police was sparked by a complaint from Tom Watson, a lawmaker from the opposition Labour party, and confirmed in a letter which he published on his website Thursday. “Thank you for your letter dated 23 January, 2012, and the subsequent letter clarifying the position around the evidence given by The Times to the Leveson Inquiry,” Detective Superintendent John Levett wrote to Watson on January 25. “I write to reassure you that the concerns raised within your letters are under investigation and officers from Operation Tuleta are dealing directly with the victim.” Operation Tuleta is the Met’s investigation into computer hacking, which has so far made one arrest. It runs alongside the probe into phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid, which Murdoch closed down in July after revelations that it had hacked the voicemails of hundreds of people, including a murdered schoolgirl. News International, Murdoch’s British newspaper division, said it had no comment on the police investigation into The Times. A Metropolitan Police spokesman meanwhile confirmed it had received a letter from Watson and said officers investigating computer hacking were in touch with him, adding that it would not be giving a “running commentary” on the probe. In his appearance before the Leveson Inquiry last month, Harding said a Times reporter had been disciplined after hacking an email account. “There was an incident where the newsroom was concerned that a reporter had gained unauthorised access to an email account. When it was brought to my attention, the journalist faced disciplinary action,” the editor said. “The reporter believed he was seeking to gain information in the public interest but we took the view he had fallen short of what was expected of a Times journalist.” The reporter, named as Patrick Foster, was issued with a formal written warning for professional misconduct and was subsequently dismissed from the newspaper for an unrelated matter. According to a Times story on the affair, Foster hacked the account of detective Richard Horton as part of an attempt to expose him as the author of NightJack, a popular blog that gave a behind-the-scenes view of police work. The policeman tried to block the revelation but a High Court judge ruled in 2009 that the story naming him was in the public interest. Prime Minister David Cameron set up the Leveson Inquiry to examine the culture, ethics and practices of the press after the phone hacking scandal.
