A jury has acquitted four British tabloid journalists of paying prison officers for information, in the latest blow to a wide-ranging police investigation into alleged bribery by reporters.
Jurors found Tom Wells, Neil Millard and Brandon Malinsky from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun and Graham Brough of the rival Daily Mirror not guilty of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office.
Jurors on Friday failed to reach a verdict on one other charge against Wells and an official. The judge dismissed the jury and said prosecutors had a week to decide whether to seek a retrial.
The trial was the latest to be triggered by Britain's phone-hacking scandal, and brings to 14 the number of reporters cleared over cash-for-scoops allegations.
The charges stemmed from police investigations sparked by the 2011 revelation of illegal phone hacking at Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid.
Scores of journalists have been arrested, though only a few have been convicted of wrongdoing.
The highest-profile casualty was former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who was convicted last year of conspiring to eavesdrop on mobile-phone voicemails and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After Friday's verdicts, prosecutors faced calls to drop forthcoming prosecutions of journalists on bribery charges.
"I hope these acquittals will remove the fear currently freezing investigative journalism, which is the lifeblood of any democracy," said Brough.
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