- Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee savages media mogul saying he is not fit to run a major international corporation
- Guilty of 'huge failings of corporate governance' and 'simply astonishing' he and son, James, didn't know of extent of phone hacking at News of the World
- One MP accuses News Corp of 'cover up of rampant lawbreaking' but committee is split six to four over Murdoch criticism
- Former NOTW editor Colin Myler, lawyer Tom Crone and NI chairman Les Hinton 'misled parliament' over hacking, MPs claim
- Murdoch's broadcasting licence for BSkyB now even in jeapordy as Ofcom widens probe
- Louise Mensch says 'partisan report has lost a very great deal of its credibility' as Labour vote along party lines against Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch is unfit to lead his global media empire and his staff misled parliament about the scale of phone hacking at the News of the World, a damning MPs' report found today.
The powerful committee of MPs dismissed as 'simply astonishing' suggestions Mr Murdoch and his son James only realised hacking was not confined to 'one rogue reporter' in December 2010.
In a scathing attack, Labour MP Tom Watson, who sits on the committee, said that News International had carried out an 'extensive cover up of its rampant lawbreaking'.
Rupert Murdoch is not 'a fit person' to run a major international corporation, the committee of MPs said, in an excoriating report which delivered yet another shocking blow to the media mogul and his already shattered reputation in the UK.
The findings throw into doubt News Corp's British broadcasting licence which it must have to run BSkyB as the regulator Ofcom widens its probe into the deal. If the watchdog finds against the firm, Murdoch could be forced to sell his stake in Britain's biggest satellite company.
Inner circle: Rupert Murdoch (front right) with Les Hinton (front left), Andy Coulson (back left) and Rebekah Brooks
Damning: MPs are reportedly in agreement that Colin Myler and former Tom Crone misled Parliament
The committee's findings released today accuse the News Corp chief of exhibiting 'wilful blindness' towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.
James Murdoch is described as exhibiting a "lack of curiosity … wilful ignorance even" at the time of the negotiations surrounding the 2008 Gordon Taylor phone-hacking settlement and into 2009 and 2010. This 'clearly raises questions of competence' on his part, it adds.
It said News Corp had been guilty of 'huge failings of corporate governance' and that throughout its instinct had been 'to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators'.
Murdoch has insisted he was unaware that hacking was widespread at the News of the World, which was forced to close down last July, blaming his staff for keeping him in the dark.
He has apologised for the scandal but told a judicial inquiry into press ethics last week that senior staff at his British newspaper publisher had hidden the hacking scandal.
The legislators said that if that was true, 'he turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies.'
'We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company,' the panel of 11 lawmakers wrote.
The judgment on Rupert Murdoch implies that News Corp., which he heads, is not a fit to control BSkyB, in which News Corp holds a controlling stake of 39 percent.
Under fire: James Murdoch (pictured left with his father Rupert) have been criticised over their management of News Corp and showing 'wilful ignorance '
'This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International.
'We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.'
COMMITTEE WAS DIVIDED OVER ATTACKS ON 'UNFIT' MURDOCH
Tory MP Louise Mensch slammed Labour members of the committee for playing 'party politics' with the report and its attacks on Rupert Murdoch.
The committee of MPs were split in their the media mogul with six Labour and Lib Dems launching personal attacks on him while the other four Conservatives refused to back those claims.
Mensch said that the 'partisan' report had 'lost a very great deal of its credibility' because Labour had block voted along party lines.
She said: 'Conservative members of the committee did not vote as a bloc and often disagreed with each other and divided in different ways on different amendments. That was not, however, the same with our Labour colleagues.
'And it is not simply a matter of not voting for certain amendments. No Conservative member on this committee with a vote was able to recommend the report itself to the House.
'And every one of us, while we share different views about the culpability of News Corporation and the degree of culpability of James Murdoch in particular, none of us were able to support the report and we all voted against it.
'That will mean it will be correctly seen as a partisan report and will have lost a very great deal of its credibility, which is an enormous shame.
'The issue on which no Conservative member felt they could support the report itself was the line in the middle of the report that said that Mr Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run an international company.
'We all thought that was wildly outside the scope of a select committee, was an improper attempt to influence Ofcom and to tread on areas that are not the province of a select committee.'
She said the report was 'carried on political lines and, therefore, after many months of work, I fear its credibility has been damage'.
Tory committee member Louise Mensch defended Murdoch and criticised Tom Watson, the most vocal critic of the Murdoch empire who has styled himself as a figurehead of the anti-hacking campaign.
She blamed Labour committee members for the inability to reach unanimous agreement on the 'partisan' report, criticising the decision to question Rupert Murdoch's fitness to run an international news company.
She said: 'Conservative members of the committee did not vote as a bloc and often disagreed with each other and divided in different ways on different amendments. That was not, however, the same with our Labour colleagues.
'And it is not simply a matter of not voting for certain amendments. No Conservative member on this committee with a vote was able to recommend the report itself to the House.
'And every one of us, while we share different views about the culpability of News Corporation and the degree of culpability of James Murdoch in particular, none of us were able to support the report and we all voted against it.
'That will mean it will be correctly seen as a partisan report and will have lost a very great deal of its credibility, which is an enormous shame.
'The issue on which no Conservative member felt they could support the report itself was the line in the middle of the report that said that Mr Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run an international company.
'We all thought that was wildly outside the scope of a select committee, was an improper attempt to influence Ofcom and to tread on areas that are not the province of a select committee.'
Tory MP Philip Davies, who also sits on the panel, said the report's description of Mr Murdoch as not a fit person to run a major corporation was passed on a majority of just six votes to four, and he accused Labour members of the committee of 'getting carried away'.
'Many people may conclude that some people's conclusions were written before any of the evidence was ever heard, and I think that is very sad,' said Mr Davies.
'To me, very clearly, Rupert Murdoch is a fit and proper person to run a major company.'
He urged the public and fellow-MPs to focus on the elements of the report which were passed unanimously, and which accused specific individuals of misleading the committee.
Another Tory member of the committee, Damian Collins, said 'fit and proper person' was a specific legal test applied by regulator Ofcom and not something the committee could rule on.
'You may have all sorts of personal opinions of Rupert Murdoch and the way he runs his companies, but it isn't something we have investigated,' said Mr Collins.
Committee chair John Whittingdale said he did not vote on any of the amendments in the report, but hinted at his opinion on whether it should have branded Mr Murdoch unfit, saying: 'I would merely observe that as well as being the chairman of the committee, I am a Conservative MP.'
He said it would be for the House of Commons to decide what sanctions should be applied against anyone found to have misled the committee, if it agreed to debate the issue in the chamber, as the report recommends.
While the 'many amendments tabled by my colleagues Paul Farrelly and Tom Watson (both Labour MPs) were carried by a majority vote, I would nonetheless have voted for the report and explained where I disagreed, and so would many of my colleagues - not all of them but many of them - had that line about Rupert Murdoch's unfitness to run an international company not been left in'.
The report was 'carried on political lines and, therefore, after many months of work, I fear its credibility has been damaged'.
The report went on to accuse three former senior executives of News Corp's UK newspaper publishing arm News International - Les Hinton, Colin Myler, and Tom Crone - of misleading the committee during its inquiries into the scandal in 2009.
The committee found that Mr Hinton, the former News International chairman, had misled it when he gave evidence in 2009 about payments made to former royal correspondent Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for phone hacking.
A policeman walks through the security gates at News International's Wapping plant in London, England, at the height of the hacking scandal
The MPs said that Hinton had 'inexcusably' mislead the committee over his role in authorising the £243,000 payout to Clive Goodman.
'We consider, therefore, that Les Hinton was complicit in the cover-up at News International, which included making misleading statements and giving a misleading picture to the committee,' the MPs said
The report added that Myler, former News of the World editor, and Mr Crone, the paper's former legal manager, misled it over their knowledge that other staff were involved in phone hacking.
MPs said that Myler, who is now editor of the New York Daily News, and Crone deliberately withheld crucial information and falsely answered questions put by the committee.
It said it could now ask the House of Commons to decide whether there had been a contempt of Parliament and what the punishment should be.
'The integrity and effectiveness of the select committee system relies on the truthfulness and completeness of the oral and written evidence submitted,' it said.
'The behaviour of News International and certain witnesses in this affair demonstrated contempt for that system in the most blatant fashion.'
The committee said it was 'simply astonishing' that News International - including the Murdochs - had sought to maintain that phone hacking was down to one 'rogue reporter'.
The company continued to stick with the line even after James Murdoch authorised a £700,000 payout to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.
'Had James Murdoch been more attentive to the correspondence that he received at the time, he could have taken action on phone hacking in 2008 and this committee could have been told the truth in 2009,' the report said.
It said that it was only at the end of 2010 that the company accepted that its 'containment approach' had failed and that it no longer had 'any shred of credibility'.
'Since then, News Corporation's strategy has been to lay the blame on certain individuals, particularly Colin Myler, Tom Crone and Jonathan Chapman, and lawyers, whilst striving to protect more senior figures, most notably James Murdoch,' the report said.
'Even if there was a 'don't ask, don't tell' culture at News International, the whole affair demonstrates huge failings of corporate governance at the company and its parent, News Corp.'
The MPs criticised Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer and John Yates, former Acting Deputy Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, for failing to ensure hacking claims were properly investigated.
News Corporation said in a statement it was 'carefully reviewing' the report and would 'respond shortly', adding: 'The company fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologises to everyone whose privacy was invaded.'
A spokesman for media regulator Ofcom said: 'We note the publication of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee report.
'Ofcom has a duty under the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996 to be satisfied that any person holding a broadcasting licence is, and remains, fit and proper to do so. Ofcom is continuing to assess the evidence - including the new and emerging evidence - that may assist it in discharging these duties.'
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2137671/Murdoch-executives-misled-Parliament-bid-cover-phone-hacking-scandal.html#ixzz1tcSqkzQR
