Four British tabloid journalists have been acquitted of paying prison officers for information.

The charges against the reporters from the Rupert Murdoch-owned Sun and its rival Daily Mirror stemmed from the 2011 revelation of illegal phone hacking at the News of the World.

Scores of journalists have been arrested, though only a few have been convicted of wrongdoing and the latest verdicts are another blow to a wide-ranging police investigation into alleged bribery.