I SEE that the FBI is now to investigate the possibility that News International may have been involved in hacking the phones of victims of 9/11 and the possibility of bribes being paid to the New York police.

I understand that, under American law, the company may even be open to prosecution for payments made to our police.

It would be the supreme irony that at a time when Rebekah Brooks and the Murdochs may once again cock a snook at our Parliament by refusing to appear before a Select Committee to answer questions, that they end up being brought to book in America.

The difference is, of course, that America has a written constitution which enshrines parliamentary authority over such abuses of power, even such once seemingly all-powerful media moguls as Rupert Murdoch.

Given that we have seen how craven some of our top politicians have been towards such media power, and the complicity of some of our police, would it not be sensible for us as citizens to campaign for a written constitution to protect us from the cancer of future Murdochs weakening the body politic?

ALAN FISHER Witney Road Finstock