The scandal that began with revelations the News of the World had hacked into private phone lines has grown to include other newspapers as well as politicians.
In fact, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown weighed into the fray on Tuesday, accusing the newspaper and others owned by Rupert Murdoch's media empire of hiring criminals to dig for secret information about his family and others.
Speaking to the BBC, Brown was blunt: "The people that they work with are criminals. Known criminals. Criminals with records."
The tabloid News of the World became fodder for media headlines around the world last week, when Murdoch announced the paper was shutting down.
The decision followed a storm of controversy related to allegations the paper had hacked into private voice mail services, including that of a 13 year-old murder victim.
Brown said Tuesday he had reason to believe that The Sunday Times, another publication owned by Murdoch, had obtained access to his bank account as well as legal files and possibly other documents and data early in his tenure as prime minister.
On Monday, allegations emerged that one of Murdoch's papers stole medical records related to Brown's seriously ill baby son.
"I'm shocked, I'm genuinely shocked to find that this happened because of their links with criminals, known criminals, who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators with The Sunday Times," Brown said.
Last week, the scandal even touched British Prime Minister David Cameron after his former communications chief Andy Coulson was arrested over allegations he was involved with making payments to police while editor of the News of the World.
Murdoch's global media company News Corp. has seen its stock market value plummet since the scandal began, and his plan to purchase British Sky Broadcasting -- worth billions of British pounds -- has been knocked off the rails.
On Tuesday Steven Field, a spokesperson for Cameron, said the government was backing a Labour party motion calling on Murdoch and News Corp. to withdraw the BSkyB bid.
The motion will be discussed in parliament on Wednesday.
Jeffrey Dvorkin of the Organization of News Ombudsmen, said the British media has so many newspapers vying for stories and readers that journalistic standards often fall by the wayside.
"Right now we're in a very competitive environment. There are media battles going on everywhere to sustain audiences and circulation and I think when you have that kind of pressure in a constricting media economy you're going to have these things happen and maybe not just in Britain," Dvorkin told CTV's Canada AM.
He said it's not just tabloid news sources that have been accused of paying sources or illegally accessing private information. The Sunday Times, he said, is a well-respected publication.
"Nobody's really immune from this and we have to really look at ourselves in the mirror and ask if we're sustaining the standards of journalism that need to be maintained," he said.
With files from The Associated Press
