Phone Hacking scandal linked to The Guardian as a journalist is questioned.

Amelia Hill, a Guardian reporter, was recently questioned over concerns about attempts to criminalise contact between journalists and off the record sources.

Miss Hill is one of several journalists at the Guardian who has been writing about developments in the phone-hacking scandal. The newspaper has argued that this case in particular will have implications for how journalists interact with the police.

Such is the severity of this question that the National Union of Journalist’s General Secretary (Michelle Stanistreet) issued a statement saying “There is a vital journalistic principle at stake here. It is outrageous that an allegation of off-the-record briefings is being treated as a criminal matter”. Stanistreet is outraged that Hill is being questioned.

Following the News of the World Scandal, two separate inquiries have been launched in the past month to examine whether police officers should be prevented freely from speaking to the media.