News Corp denies Guardian wiretap story

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - News Corp on Friday denied a report in The Guardian newspaper that said News of the World reporters worked with private investigators to get access to thousands of private mobile phones belonging to celebrities, lawmakers and other public figures.

News Corp's News International unit said it is untrue that police found evidence that News staff hacked into the mobile phone accounts on their own or with private investigators, apart from one well publicized case.

It also denied that other news staff hacked into mobile phones or gained access to people's voicemails.

"All of these irresponsible allegations against News of the World and other News international titles and its journalists are false," said the statement, which was provided by a News Corp spokeswoman.

Actors Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow, Australian model Elle Macpherson and former British deputy prime minister John Prescott were among those targeted by journalists seeking stories for the Sunday paper, The Guardian reported.

News International said this was untrue, based on its own investigation that it conducted after The Guardian story broke on Wednesday. News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch, who was attending the Allen & Co media conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, refused to address reporter questions about the matter.

British police said on Thursday they would not reopen investigations into the interception of celebrities' mobile phone voicemails by journalists, despite the allegations.

The original police investigation, which began in 2005, led to the jailing of two men, News of the World reporter Clive Goodman and a private investigator, for hacking into the phones of staff working for the royal family.