Sun associate editor blasts ‘witch-hunt’ against journalists

THE Sun’s journalists are being treated “like members of an organised crime gang”, according to the paper’s associate editor.

Writes Trevor Kavanagh in today’s edition of the paper – including its Scottish edition, with Scottish political editor, Andrew Nicoll, being away: “Don’t believe everything you hear from our critics. The Sun is not a ‘swamp’ that needs ‘draining’.

“Nor are those other great News International titles, The Times and The Sunday Times.

“Yet in what would at any other time cause uproar in Parliament and among civil liberty and human rights campaigners, its journalists are being treated like members of an organised crime gang.

“They are subjects of the biggest police operation in British criminal history – bigger even than the Pan Am Lockerbie murder probe.

“Major crime investigations are on hold as 171 police are drafted in to run three separate operations.”

His remarks follow the arrest of five journalists on Saturday, on suspicion of making illegal payments to police officers and other officials.