The company which owns the Daily Mirror and the Sunday Mirror has launched a review into its editorial practices - amid allegations which suggest hacking may have taken place on its titles.
Other than News International, Trinity Mirror Group is thought to be the first media proprietor in Britain to launch such a review since the hacking scandal re-emerged earlier this month. On Monday the Daily Mail's parent company ruled out any internal investigation. However a spokesperson for Trinity Mirror Group played down its significance of the development, insisting the allegations made by the BBC's Newsnight and other newspapers were not the main reason why the review's being conducted now.
A spokesman said the review would be into editorial controls and procedures, saying, "It's not unusual. The last time we did this was after the Hutton report into the death of Dr David Kelly. Since that time we have introduced new technologies which change the manner in which we handle content, so the way that we do things has changed. With the background of everything going on, it was timely to conduct another review".
A spokesman for the company said the review was entirely in-house and would be completed by the middle of September. It is being chaired by the group's director of Risk and Audit, Charmain Steven. She will oversee a team of editorial, financial and legal directors from across the company's national and regional titles.
One former Mirror financial journalist has recently claimed that phone hacking was a common occurence under the editorship of Piers Morgan - those claims have been denied by Morgan, who now presents a prime-time talk show on the US cable channel CNN.