Newspaper owner in new cash-for-stories scandal

Hot on the heels of the admission by Sun editor Becky Wade that her newspaper had paid police officers for stories, the owner of Express Newspapers Richard Desmond has sensationally confessed to similar underhand behaviour.

Shockingly, however, it appears that Desmond has not been wedging out to plod for his scoops but rather paying writers to produce copy.

His disclosure came as the interrogation by a Parliamentary Select Committee of editors and owners continued apace. MPs have been trying to determine if some sort of legal restrictions should be imposed upon the press to halt the bad practices that sometimes shame the profession, or whether they shouldn't bother and pitch instead for their own columns in the quality dailies.

"It's true," said a harassed-looking Desmond as he squirmed under the hot lights of Gerald Kaufman's spittle, "there have been times when I have been prepared to pay reporters for writing stories. But I would like to make it clear that this is very much the exception and not something I normally approve of. It's only done when there is no other option and in the public interest."

Desmond has previously been known for bravely refusing to suborn writers by paying them for their articles, preferring instead to get material free off the Internet.

"It's the only moral way," he told The Rockall Times just before attending the Select Committee joust. "If proprietors like me start paying for stories all the time then it's a slippery slope towards an Orwellian nightmare scenario. Hacks will end up just writing what we want them to and where's the journalistic independence in that? When people talk about having a free press that's what I imagine it means."

Staff at Desmond's company yesterday refused to comment any further on the matter but did play us an entertaining tape of a little boy squeaking "Express delivery".