British lawmaker grills Rupert Murdoch at event

Oct 22, 2011 |

AP via PTI

Los Angeles

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British lawmaker Tom Watson grilled News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch about covert surveillance techniques by company employees as News Corp held its first shareholders meeting following a phone-hacking scandal.

More than 100 people demonstrated on Saturday outside the lot of News Corp's Fox Studios.

Watson asked Murdoch whether he was aware that a person who had left prison was hired by News Corp and hacked the computer of a former army intelligence officer. Murdoch said he wasn't aware, and board director Viet Dinh said the company would look into the allegation.

"I promise you absolutely that we will stop at nothing to get to the bottom of this and put it right," Murdoch told Watson at the meeting at Fox Studios.

Watson evoked private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who was jailed in 2007 for eavesdropping on the phones of royal staff, in warning of troubles ahead for the company. "News Corp is potentially facing a Mulcaire II," Watson said.

"You haven't told any of your investors about what is to come." Murdoch closed the meeting after 90 minutes. Murdoch faced shareholders with small stakes in his company for the first time since the scandal broke in July.

Watson, representing shares owned by the labor group AFL-CIO, used the event to reveal new details of what he claims are covert surveillance techniques by News Corp employees.

Watson, a Labour Party member of Parliament, has spearheaded a 2 1/2-year probe into phone hacking and alleged police bribery scandal at the company's British newspaper unit.

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