Rupert Murdoch unfit to lead, say UK lawmakers
LONDON - The House of Commons Committee on Culture, Media, and Sport in a report Tuesday accused two senior executives and an editor at Rupert Murdoch's media empire of misleading members of Parliament over Britain's long-running phone hacking scandal.
In a 121-page report on phone hacking, the parliamentary committee among other findings concluded that News Corp. (NWS) Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch "is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.
This view did not find consensus throwing up a divide along political lines.
The long-awaited report on the phone tapping scandal observed: "In failing to investigate properly, and by ignoring evidence of widespread wrongdoing, News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility."
The committee approved the report by six to four, split between members of the opposition Labour party who backed its findings, and Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, who opposed them.
The head of the opposition has accused Cameron of covering up alleged improper activity by a minister in the scandal of News Corp's failed attempt to take over British pay television operator BSkyB.
The parliamentary committee's judgement also calls into question News Corp's fitness to control BSkyB through its 39 per cent controlling stake.
Detractors are further suspicious that Murdoch Senior and his son James, also criticized in the report, enjoyed favourable treatment in their bid to buy the whole of the operator.
A judge-led probe into media ethics revealed that emails from Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt showed he keenly supported the bid. That appeared to conflict with official non-bias.
Hunt told reporters: "I will be handing over all my private texts and emails to my special advisor to the Leveson Inquiry and I am confident they will vindicate the position that I handled the BSkyB merger process with total integrity."
Labour party leader Ed Miliband said Cameron "is defending the indefensible, protecting the culture secretary."
The alleged contempt of Parliament by Murdoch's right-hand man Les Hinton, former News of the World editor Colin Myler and former legal manager Tom Crone will now be put to vote in parliament, the chairman of the committee said.
The consequences of failing to tell the committee about what the three men knew about illegal phone hackings of celebrities, murder victims, politicians and soldiers are unknown, but may take the form of an admonition.
The report's sentence about Murdoch's fitness inserted by activist Labour MP Tom Watson prompted the ruling Conservative party member of the committee Louise Mensch to vote against the report calling it "partisan and political".
News Corp said it was "carefully reviewing" the report and would "respond shortly".
"The company fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologises to everyone whose privacy was invaded," it said in a statement.
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