Two News International journalists try to commit suicide amid phone hacking, corruption probes

London, Mar 8(ANI): Two News International journalists are recovering in hospital, after surviving apparent suicide attempts in the wake of the phone hacking and corruption scandals that have engulfed media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire.

Three sources close to News International claimed that two company employees had tried to commit suicide amid mounting pressure from both the corruption inquiry and the on-going phone hacking investigation probe, The Daily Mail reports.

Sources added that other journalists at the company look 'terribly stressed and many are on the edge' as the company's Management and Standards Committee has turned over 300 million emails and internal papers to Scotland Yard investigators probing phone hacking and bribery allegations.

The MSC's co-operation with the police on the probe has triggered a civil war in the Murdoch empire, with the top bosses furious that the committee, headed by Lord Grabiner QC, has 'sold journalists down the river'.

"People think that they've been thrown under a bus. They're beyond angry - there's an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organisation but with a general lynch-mob hysteria'," a source was quoted as saying.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, who heads the News International probe told the Leveson Inquiry that she believed The Sun had established a 'network of corrupted officials' inside the police, the armed forces and other key public organisations.

She added there was a 'culture of illegal payments' at the newspaper.

No one from The Sun or the News International has yet been charged with an offence. (ANI)