Murdoch’s son to face further questioning

BRITISH politicians, struggling in their bid to find out who knew what about phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, will recall son James for further questioning after employees contradicted his claims of innocence.

James Murdoch, chairman of News Corp’s British newspaper arm, spent almost three hours in front of a parliamentary committee with his father in July, answering questions over what they had done to unravel the scandal at the Sunday tabloid.

But James’s testimony, and his insistence that he did not know the problem stretched beyond “one rogue reporter” until earlier this year, has since been undermined by two senior employees who say they made him aware of a wider problem in 2008.

Tom Watson, the most dogged member of the committee to pursue the case, told Reuters: “We’re inviting him back. We feel we should hear from Les Hinton and a couple of the lawyers before James Murdoch, so realistically we are talking about November.”

News Corp has been engulfed by the scandal since July when it was revealed phone hacking extended beyond celebrities and politicians to murder victims.

The crisis has wiped billions off News Corp’s market value, cost it two senior executives, forced it to drop a bid for BSkyB and to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World.

James Murdoch has seen his chances of succeeding his father and founder of the media empire recede too.

News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corp, said it was still to hear from the committee, but said James Murdoch would be happy to appear in front of members again.