British lawmakers said on Friday it was likely News Corp’s James Murdoch would be recalled to clarify details about evidence on phone hacking he gave to a parliamentary committee, following claims his testimony was “mistaken”.
Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport (CMS)Committee has said it would be writing to Murdoch asking him for more details about evidence he gave earlier this month about phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World tabloid that has shaken his father Rupert’s media empire. The two Murdochs along with former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks appeared before the committee on July 19 when they were pressed about phone-hacking and payments to police by News of the World reporters. “We are going to write to ask for further details on areas where evidence is disputed,” said the committee’s chairman John Whittingdale.
While the committee voted against immediately recalling Murdoch, chairman of British newspaper arm News International, Whittingdale said it was likely he would be recalled at a later date over claims some of his original testimony was wrong. Tom Crone, News International’s former top legal officer, and Colin Myler, editor of the News of the World until it was shut down earlier this month, have disputed some of James Murdoch’s evidence.
Murdoch said he had not been in possession of all the facts when he approved a large payout to English soccer executive Gordon Taylor, one of the phone-hacking victims.
But in a statement, Myler and Crone said they had told him of an email from a News of the World reporter to “Neville,” containing transcripts of hacked voicemails. Neville Thurlbeck was the paper’s chief reporter when it published a story about Taylor. Whittingdale said the statement had “raised questions over some of the evidence that we have received” and they would also be contacting Crone and Myler.
ORAL EVIDENCE: “If they come up with statements which are quite plainly different to those given to the committee by James Murdoch, we will want to hear James Murdoch’s response to that, and chances are that may well involve oral evidence again as well,” he said.
News International’s then lawyers Harbottle and Lewis, whose actions have also come in for criticism, would also be asked for details of their work. Allegations of hacking at News Corp’s British newspapers, in particular reports that journalists accessed the voicemails of murder victims, have triggered a judicial inquiry and calls from some politicians to cap News Corp’s media ownership.
It has already led to News Corp dropping its $12 billion bid for the 61 percent of pay-TV broadcaster BSkyB it does not own and put James Murdoch’s position in the spotlight.
BSkyB sweetens shareholders, James Murdoch remains boss
LONDON: British pay-TV giant BSkyB offered its shareholders over £1.0 billion in payouts Friday as it moves on from a failed takeover bid and phone-hacking scandal involving Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. After posting bumper underlying annual profits, BSkyB said it planned a share buyback of £750 million ($1.22 billion, 857 million euros) and dividend of £253 million — moves seen as calming the waters after a recent share price collapse. The company meanwhile confirmed that Murdoch’s son James would remain its chairman despite a phone-hacking row at the satellite broadcaster’s main shareholder News Corp., which caused the breakdown of its bid for all of BSkyB. AFP
