Sun on Sunday hits newsstands

The first Sunday edition of The Sun yesterday hit newsstands across the UK with a pledge of “trust” and “decency” following the damaging phone hacking scandal.

Our journalists must abide by the Press Complaints Commission’s editor’s code

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch personally supervised the final stages of production of the new title which promised readers it would remain “fearless, outspoken, mischievous and fun”.

The newspaper claimed it would hold all journalists to account and said it had appointed a readers’ champion to deal with errors and feedback from the public. In an editorial, the newspaper also commented on the arrests of 10 current and former employees over alleged corrupt payments to public officials, saying they were “innocent until proven guilty”.

It said that the closure of its sister paper the News of the World, which ceased publication last July at the height of the hacking scandal, was a “sobering experience”.

In an editorial, titled: A new Sun rises today, it said: “As we launch the seven day Sun, we want to strengthen that connection (with the readers) with a new independent Sun Readers’ Champion to accept feedback and correct significant errors.

“Our journalists must abide by the Press Complaints Commission’s editors code, the industry standard for ethical behaviour, and the News Corporation standards of business conduct. We will hold our journalists to the standards we expect of them. After all a newspaper which holds the powerful to account must do the same with itself.”

It said the Sun has been a “tremendous force for good”, adding: “It is worth reminding our readers, and detractors, of that as we publish our historic first Sunday edition during what is a challenging period.

Mr Murdoch had earlier thanked staff at The Sun, tweeting: “New Sunday edition nearly ready. Fantastic achievement by great staff. Many thanks.”

It is understood that three million copies of the paper were printed overnight.