Media mogul Rupert Murdoch threw his weight on Friday behind his beleaguered tabloid The Sun by announcing he would launch a Sunday edition of the paper. "We will build on The Sun's proud heritage by launching the Sun on Sunday very soon," Murdoch announced in an email to staff, adding that The Sun - the first newspaper he bought in Britain in 1969 - "is a part of me". The tycoon had flown in to Britain on Thursday to deal with the latest crisis in his media empire in the face of journalists' anger following the arrests of 10 current and former staff over allegations of bribing public officials. But amid whispers that he was considering closing The Sun, just as he closed the News of the World in July after it was engulfed in a phone hacking scandal, Murdoch instead moved to reassure staff. He praised the "superb work" of Sun journalists and said the recent arrests were "a source of great pain for me". He said News International, the British newspaper arm of his News Corp empire, would do "everything we can to assist those who are arrested". The staff who had been arrested were welcome to return to work, he said, adding: "Everyone is innocent until proven otherwise." The Sun on Sunday will be aimed to fill the gap in the Sunday newspaper market left by the News of the World, which sold 2.7 million copies every week. The Sun sells 2.5 million copies a day, making it the biggest-selling title in a crowded British newspaper market. Police arrested five journalists last weekend as well as a Ministry of Defence official, a member of the armed forces and a policeman over allegations that reporters paid officials for information. Four current and former Sun employees were also arrested in January, and another in November. Journalists at the paper are furious at the role of News Corp in the arrests, which were sparked by information passed to police by a committee set up by the company in response to the phone-hacking furore.
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