A British lawmaker referred James Murdoch to police Friday over claims of misleading parliament on the phone-hacking scandal as Prime Minister David Cameron said the media heir had “questions to answer”.
Tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s son, and chairman of its British newspaper division News International, has been challenged over evidence he gave denying he knew that hacking was widespread at the shuttered News of the World.
The development put the spotlight back on the Murdochs just as the scandal seemed to be spreading to other British newspapers, having already dragged in the police and politicians, even embroiling Cameron himself.
During a tense appearance alongside his father at parliament’s media committee on Tuesday, the 38-year-old Murdoch denied all knowledge of an email suggesting the problem went beyond one rogue reporter before authorising a payout to a victim.
But Colin Myler, the former editor of the Sunday tabloid, and Tom Crone, News International’s ex-legal manager, broke ranks on Thursday to say James Murdoch’s recollection of events in 2008 was a “mistake”.
