In strong criticism of US-Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch, the House of Commons select committee on culture, media and sport said in its phone-hacking report Tuesday the News Corporation chairman was “not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international company”.
The influential committee, which questioned Rupert Murdoch in July last year and his son James twice on phone-hacking in News International, concluded: “If at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone-hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications. 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.”
The committee was also highly critical of James Murdoch for showing “wilful ignorance” of the extent of phone hacking in 2009 and 2010.
The report said it was “simply astonishing” the Murdoch father-and-son duo only realised as late as December 2010 that News International’s “rogue reporter” line was untrue.
The influential committee was split along party lines in criticising the two Murdochs. The report was passed despite dissent by four Tory MPs on the committee. The committee’s chairman does not vote except in case of a deadlock.
The report named three senior News International executives for misleading Parliament. It said Les Hinton, its former executive chairman, misled the committee in 2009 in not telling the truth about payments to Clive Goodman and his role in authorising them, including payment of his legal fee. It also said News International legal head Tom Crone and News of the World editor Colin Myler had misled the committee.
The committee will table its report in the House of Commons, which will decide by vote “whether contempt has been committed” and, if so, what punishment should be imposed.