News of the World to prominent Britons: We’re sorry for phone-hacking you

News of the World, a top-selling U.K. tabloid, has issued its first admission of liability in the phone-hacking scandal that has clouded the paper for the past five years.

According to the BBC and the AP, News of the World, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp./News International, apologized to some of the high-profile figures who had their voicemails hacked. At least one journalist and a private investigator working for the paper illegally hacked into the phone messaging systems of major British public figures.

It's not clear how many people's privacy was compromised, or who was on the receiving end of the mea culpas. But a number of well-known Britons, including actress Sienna Miller, are in litigation with the paper. News of the World is reportedly prepared to settle some of those cases.

"The BBC understands [that News of the World] hopes to pay out less than £20m in total to victims," according to a dispatch on the British broadcasting service's website. News International is offering to settle with eight of the targets of the surveillance, including former Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, designer Kelly Hoppen and sports commentator Andy Gray, according to the BBC's business editor.

The news comes just days after Ian Edmondson, formerly news editor at News of the World, and Neville Thurlbeck, the paper's chief reporter, were arrested on suspicion of "conspiring to intercept communications."

The scandal seemed to have drawn to a close in 2007, with the convictions of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire and News of the World's former royal editor, Clive Goodman, both of whom were sentenced to jail time. But subsequent inquiries revealed that the phone-hacking was more widespread than investigators first assumed.