By Greg Hazley
Another PR pro has been drawn into the simmering News Corp. hacking scandal in the U.K. over his role in awarding a PR contract for the British police.
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Scotland Yard said today that its own PR chief has been referred to an independent commission investigating the British police’s involvement in the News Corp. hacking scandal.
Dick Fedorcio, director of public affairs for the U.K.’s Metropolitan Police, will be probed for his interactions with another PR pro and former ex-News Corp. exec, Neil Wallis, the former executive editor of now-defunct News of the World who moved to U.K. PR agency Outside Organization as a managing director and set up his own shop, Chamy Media.
Wallis, who was arrested on July 14 in the hacking scandal, did PR consulting work for the Metro Police, which announced the probe of 58-year-old Fedorcio on July 19.
“The context of this referral is in connection with the ongoing high level public interest in the relationship between News International and the MPS and, in particular, the relationship between Neil Wallis and Mr Fedorcio and the circumstances under which the contract was awarded to Chamy Media,” the police, also known as MPS and Scotland Yard, said in a statement.
Fedorcio is a veteran U.K. executive who was awarded an Order of the British Empire by the Queen in 2006. Previous stints included Westminster Advisers and directed communications for the U.K. Electricity Association. He was president of the Institute of PR in 1992.
In testimony today, Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson said 10 of Metro's 45 PR staffers are former employees of News Corp.
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