Another Murdoch joins The Times board - with a retired spy

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How independent is independent? With Rupert Murdoch supposedly on the brink of solving his BSkyB dilemma by hiving off Sky News to an independent trust of some sort, we discover that his eldest daughter, Prudence, has joined the board of Times Newspaper Holdings.

According to the London Evening Standard, Prudence MacLeod was appointed by her father.

The appointment was made on 28 January, along with two others: Kai Diekmann, editor of Germany's Bild newspaper, and the former MI6 boss Sir John Scarlett. Maybe that's why the changes were kept secret? Only joking, but it's funny that these kinds of appointments were not announced with a fanfare.

After all, the board has an important public function. It was set up to guarantee the independence of The Times and Sunday Times when Murdoch acquired the titles in 1981 (details here).

There are other News Corp appointees on the current 19-person board, including Rupert himself of course.

The real (well, alleged) guarantors of independence are the six "independent national directors" who exist within the board structure. Call it embedding, if you like.

They are Tory peer Lord Marlesford (formerly Mark Shuldham Schreiber); former Whitehall mandarin Sir Robin Mountfield; former deputy governor of the Bank of England Rupert Pennant-Rea; corporate PR and former Times journalist Sarah Bagnall; and Baroness Eccles, once described in the Daily Telegraph as "a quango-junkie." Her Wikipedia entry bears that out.

There are only five at present because the sixth, John Gross, the onetime Sunday Telegraph critic, died in January and has yet to be replaced.

As for the other directors, two are certainly no surprise: James Murdoch, son and putative heir, and Rebekah Brooks, lady with red hair. There are also two former senior News International executives, Andrew Knight and Jane Reed.

One of Murdoch's oldest aides, the lawyer Richard Searby, is listed despite living in Australia.


Then come the journalists: Peter Stothard, the former Times editor, now editor of the TLS; Sarah Baxter, Sunday Times magazine editor; and Anoushka Healy, Times managing editor.

There is a second Tory peer, Lord (Brian) Griffiths, and finally, there's the company secretary, Carla Stone.

Anyway, what do the independent directors get up to? A tiny glimmer of light was cast in a letter from four of them to The Guardian a couple of weeks ago.

We think your readers would benefit from an understanding of our role and responsibilities, it said.

The role, it continued, "is to ensure that the editors of The Times and Sunday Times are able to run the newspapers according to their own judgments and with resources that are adequate for the task...

"Our remit is to protect the editors and editorial policy from interference from the proprietor. We are always available for the two editors to raise any questions or concerns about their ability to run the newspapers as they see fit."

Their role is "most obvious", they explained. in the appointment or firing of an editor. As light duties go, this must rank as one of featherweight proportions.

The Sunday Times editor, John Witherow, was appointed in 1994 and James Harding was given The Times's chair in 2007.

Have either ever raised "any questions or concerns" about their ability to run their papers with the independent directors? Come on boys, do tell.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade+rebekahwade