James Murdoch denies claims he ‘misled’ MPs

NEWS Corp’s James Murdoch yesterday denied a statement from former employees of the British newspaper at the centre of the scandal that has rocked his father’s media empire, that he had given “mistaken” evidence to British lawmakers this week.

Murdoch, chairman of News Corp’s British newspaper arm, News International, said on Tuesday he had not been aware of an email that contained transcripts of hacked voicemails when he agreed to a large out-of-court settlement with a victim of the hacking.

Former News of the World paper editor, Colin Myler, and News International’s former chief legal adviser, Tom Crone, cast doubt on his account yesterday, the first time that it has been publicly suggested that Murdoch was aware of the scale of the problem at an earlier date than he has previously admitted.

The chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which quizzed James Murdoch and his father Rupert about the phone-hacking scandal, said he would seek clarification about the latest allegation.

The affair has plunged News Corp into crisis and raised questions about the Murdoch family’s grip on the company.

In a statement, Myler and Crone said they had told Murdoch of an email from a News of the World reporter to “Neville” (believed to refer to chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck) when payment was made to English soccer executive Gordon Taylor, sometime before mid-2009.

“Just by way of clarification relating to Tuesday’s CMS Select Committee hearing, we would like to point out that James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken,” their statement said.

“In fact, we did inform him of the ‘for Neville’ email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor’s lawyers.”

During three hours of questioning, Murdoch was asked by lawmaker Tom Watson: “Did you see or were you made aware of the full Neville email, the transcript of the hacked voicemail messages?”

“No, I was not aware of that at the time,” Murdoch told the committee, adding he was only aware of “key facts and evidence” that came to light at the end of 2010 when detectives re-launched a probe into phone-hacking and allegations reporters had bribed police officers.

In a statement released yesterday in response to the claim from Myler and Crone, Murdoch said: “I stand behind my testimony to the Select Committee.”

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee said they may push Murdoch for clarification about the issue.

“I haven’t seen the statement but if it is the case that Colin Myler and Tom Crone are in conflict on a serious issue then that is a matter we would want to obtain a response from James Murdoch on,” he told Reuters.

“James Murdoch has already said he will provide written evidence on other issues and we could ask for this to be clarified this way,” he added.

Meanwhile, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg said yesterday that media watchdogs should consider “very seriously” whether News Corp remains a fit and proper organisation to run satellite TV company BSkyB,

In an end-of-term press conference in Westminster, Clegg said Ofcom should apply the test “on an ongoing basis” to ensure that companies remain fit to hold broadcasting licenses.

The Lib Dems came at the issue from “completely different directions” from Conservatives and had a record going back to before the general election of calling for a hacking inquiry and demanding new rules to ensure media pluralism, he said.

Clegg also confirmed that he had questioned Cameron’s decision to appoint former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as Downing Street director of communications after the election.