James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World hacking scandal

Jul 08, 2011 |

London

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James Murdoch

Media scion James Murdoch may face jail for News of the World engineered phone hacking scandal.

Former editor of News of the World Andy Coulson also faces questioning by the Metropolitan Police on suspicion that he led the hacking of voice mail messages by the newspaper, The Age reports.

Former British home secretary Alan Johnson suggested that Murdoch's announcement of admission that could expose him to prosecution

Murdoch, News International's chairman, is quoted in a press release as admitting that he personally and wrongly approved out of court settlements to phone-hacking victims.

The constant spew of allegations about News of the World’s use of phone hacking reached fever pitch this week, forcing Murdoch to announce newspaper’s closure.

News of the World had confessed to and apologised for hacking the message banks of several celebrities, sports identities and politicians two months ago.

There was widespread condemnation of actions taken by the newspaper. But, this week, it was alleged that the paper had hacked the phone of a murdered British teenager and deleted some messages in order to retrieve others - in doing so gave the girl's tortured parents some cause for hope that she was still alive and hindering police investigations.

In response to the scandal engulfing his media empire, Rupert Murdoch ordered the shut down of the News of the World which is Britain's biggest-selling Sunday newspaper with a circulation of over 2.6 million.

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