The Crown Prosecution Service has announced it is to take no further action against an unnamed Sun journalist and a public official who were investigated over tips for stories.
It is understood the journalist worked at the Sun at the time of the event which was being investigated.
Gregor McGill, a senior lawyer at the CPS, said it decided not to bring charges because “there is insufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of conviction for the charge of conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office”.
“This decision was taken in accordance with the code for crown prosecutors and the director’s guidelines on assessing the public interest in cases affecting the media.
“Any decision by the CPS does not imply any finding concerning guilt or criminal conduct; the CPS makes decisions only according to the test set out in the code for crown prosecutors and it is applied in all decisions on whether or not to prosecute.”
Since 2011, the CPS has brought charges against 35 journalists in relation to the three parallel investigations into newspapers: operation Weeting, on allegations of phone hacking; operation Elveden on allegations of unlawful payments for stories; and operation Tuleta, in relation to allegations of criminal breaches of privacy.
A further journalist accepted a caution.
The journalists are all past or present employees of the News of the World, the Sun, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Star Sunday or the Times.
Last week the CPS said: “25 journalists who were the subject of files submitted by the police” were not facing prosecution and no further action was taken.
