Murdoch to testify in parliament on hacking scandal

Jul 14, 2011, 16:54 GMT

London - Rupert Murdoch, the powerful press magnate, will give evidence next week to the British parliament over phone-hacking allegations that have rocked his global media empire.

On Thursday, the Culture and Media Select Committee issued a summons to Murdoch, 80, and his son, James, after both had initially declined to attend the session next Tuesday.

But a statement released by Murdoch's News Corporation said: 'We are in the process of writing to the select committee with the intention that Mr James Murdoch and Mr Rupert Murdoch will attend next Tuesday's meeting.'

Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, the British arm of Murdoch's New York-based News Corporation, had also agreed to give evidence.

The appearance of the top brass of Murdoch's embattled media empire comes at the height of a bruising phone-hacking scandal that has already led to the closure of a Murdoch-owned tabloid newspaper in Britain, and the announcement Wednesday that he would no longer pursue a major TV acquisition.

In the current, highly-charged atmosphere surrounding the phone-hacking scandal, questioning by angry parliamentarians is expected to be tough.

Although parliamentary committees in Britain do not have judicial powers, the hearing is nonetheless likely to be of great political and psychological significance.

Under parliamentary rules, fines and other sanctions can be imposed on people refusing to appear before committees after being summoned.

But, in the case of the Murdochs, there had been confusion over whether they could be compelled to appear as they are US - and not British - citizens.

However, Brooks warned in her response to the committee that she may refuse to answer detailed questions so as not to prejudice an ongoing police probe into the allegations.

Brooks, who has been Murdoch's right-hand woman in Britain for many years, has so far resisted intense public and political pressure to step down in the wake of the scandal.

As a former editor of the News of the World, the Sunday tabloid at the centre of the scandal and closed down by Murdoch last week, Brooks is seen as a central figure in the phone hacking allegations.

On Wednesday, following mounting political and public pressure, Murdoch withdrew his multi-billion-pound bid to take full control of BSkyB, Britain's leading pay-TV channel.

Meanwhile in London, police Thursday arrested Neil Wallis, a former deputy editor at the News of the World, in connection with the probe into illegal hacking and possible payments to the police.

Wallis is the ninth person held in over allegations that investigators and journalists at newspapers owned by Murdoch hacked into the voicemails of nearly 4,000 individuals over the past decade.

While, initially, it appeared that politicians, royalty and celebrities were the main targets of the hacking operations, it has now emerged that victims of crime, terrorist attacks and relatives of war victims in Iraq and Afghanistan were also affected.

There was a public outcry when it emerged early in July that the voicemail of Milly Dowler, a teenage girl abducted and killed in 2002, was intercepted and messages were deleted, giving her parents the 'false hope' that she might still be alive.

Last week, Andy Coulson, a former editor of the News of the World and former spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron, was questioned by police, and later released on bail.

Coulson resigned from his Downing Street post in January.

Police have also questioned Clive Goodman, the former royal editor of the News of the World, who was jailed for four months in 2007 for hacking into the voicemail messages of members of the royal family.

Meanwhile, politicians in the United States have also demanded a probe into allegations that the phones of relatives of the victims of the September 11 attacks in 2001 were also intercepted.

Murdoch's News Corporation headquarters are based in New York. In the US, Murdoch owns the Fox TV network, the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, among others.

Murdoch, who hails from a family of wealthy newspaper proprietors in Melbourne, Australia, has built a mighty media network ranging from Australia to the US, Asia and Europe.