Murdoch gives 'unwavering support' to his scandal-hit tabloid

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch on Friday pledged "unwavering support" to his scandal-hit newspaper The Sun and said he would launch a new tabloid.

"I am staying with you all, in London, for the next several weeks to give you my unwavering support," Murdoch, the 80-year-old founder and chairman of the U.S.-based News Corporation, said in an email to employees of The Sun, Britain's largest-circulation daily newspaper.

Ten current and former staff of Sun, which belongs to Murdoch's News Corporation, have been arrested by British police since last year because they were in connection with alleged corrupt payments to public officials.

Murdoch said the arrested journalists "are welcome to return to work."

He also said a Sunday version of the newspaper, Sun on Sunday, would be launched very soon. The new paper is supposed to replace News of the World, which belonged to News Corporation and was shut down last year after the scandal of telephone hacking.

Murdoch's decision was denounced by Chris Bryant, who is a member of British Parliament and has led a campaign to investigate phone-hacking.

It is "massively premature" for Murdoch to launch a new paper because investigations are not completed yet, he said.