NEWS INTERNATIONAL titles the Sunand the Sunday Timeshave both firmly rejected charges made by former British prime minister Gordon Brown that they illegally obtained his son's medical records and details of his own bank accounts.
The Sunreported that Mr Brown's son, Fraser, had been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis just days after Mr Brown and his wife, Sarah, had been told the news – the second blow to the couple who lost a daughter in 2002.
Unlike many other allegations News International has not denied, the company has moved quickly to reject this one: “We are able to assure the Brown family that we did not access the medical records of their son, nor did we commission anyone to do so.”
The information about the Browns’ son, who had been under the care of doctors in Scotland at the time, had come from a member of the public, who had discovered the information because his own son had also been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.
"He came to the Sunwith this information voluntarily because he wanted to highlight the cause of those afflicted by the disease. The individual has provided a written affidavit this afternoon to a lawyer confirming this," it said.
It repeated that the Sunhad approached Mr Brown before publication, but it went on to say that it "discussed with his colleagues how best to present" the story: "Those colleagues provided quotes which were used in the published piece which indicated his consent to it.
“We believe that the article was written sensitively and appropriately. We are not aware of Mr Brown, nor any of his colleagues to whom we spoke, making any complaint about it at the time,” News International went on.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Timesdefended its investigation of Mr Brown's purchase of a flat in London, which the newspaper believed at the time had been bought from one of disgraced publisher Robert Maxwell's companies for £30,000 below the market price.
Accepting that it had used subterfuge to get information about Mr Brown's finances, the Sunday Times, however, insisted: "We had reasonable grounds to investigate this matter and followed the PCC code on using subterfuge. We believe no law was broken in the process of this investigation.
"Contrary to Mr Brown's assertion, no criminal was used and the story was published giving all sides a fair hearing," said the Sunday Times, adding it had "reasonable grounds" to investigate the property deal.
Mr Brown believes he was targeted by News International because he would not curb the BBC’s operations.
“I had my bank account broken into. I had my legal files effectively broken into. My tax returns went missing at one point. Medical records were broken into. I don’t know how this happened.
“I do know that in two instances there is absolute proof that News International hired people to do this and the people who are doing this are criminals, known criminals in some cases, with records of violence and fraud,” he said.
