MSN News said in a report that British media celebrity Piers Morgan is under investigation by the London police regarding his connections with phone hacking allegation at the Daily Mirror. The CNN television host formerly edited the UK tabloid.
In a statement on Thursday, Morgan himself admitted that he has been questioned by police officers after turning himself in voluntarily at a police station in December of last year. The news agency said that Morgan has stood by in his claims that he had anything to do with phone hacking, but was quizzed anyway as part of a broader investigation into illegal practices by news reporters at the News of the World, the now-defunct newspaper of Rupert Murdoch.
In 2011, the newspaper industry in Britain was rocked by a scandal triggered by revelations that some News of the World staff regularly tap into phones in order to acquire scoops made for the front page, MSN News said. Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who are also known as close associates of British Prime Minister David Cameron, are set to appear on a London trial to face charges of conspiracy to phone hacking between the years 2000 and 2006.
Morgan was part of the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004. he was also editor of the controversial News of the World in 1994 for a year.
Referring to the name of the police operation that has been conducting the phone hacking allegations, a London Metropolitan Police spokesman said, "A 48-year-old man, a journalist, was interviewed under caution on December 6, 2013 by officers from Operation Golding in connection with suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails. He was interviewed by appointment at a south London police station. He was not arrested."
In December 2011, Morgan provided evidence to a public inquiry Cameron ordered when the News of the World closed. The CNN host denied to name the person who had played a phone recording of a personal voicemail Paul McCartney had left for his former wife.
