The emergency session of Parliament before the home affairs committee, which is being televised, was called by Prime Minister David Cameron following a dramatic last few days in the widening scandal.
Earlier, Former Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson repeated on Tuesday that he resigned his post in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal because he didn't want to become a distraction during the Olympics, which London is slated to host next year.
Appearing before a House of Commons committee looking into the scandal, Stephenson said he decided to resign quickly and ahead of organizing policing for the 2012 Olympics, as speculation continued to swirl about his connection to the scandal.
Questions have been raised about Stephenson's links with Neil Wallis, a former executive of News of the World who was arrested over the scandal. Wallis was employed by the police as a media consultant.
Stephenson said he now regrets the contract was taken on but there was no reason to have any suspicion about Wallis.
"There was no reason to doubt Mr. Wallis at all," Stephenson said.
Stephenson said phone hacking wasn't one of the priorities, compared to high profile murder cases and terrorism. He said he had no reason to doubt the integrity of the 2006 investigation into phone hacking that led to two arrests.
On the weekend, two of London's top police officers — Stephenson and John Yates, assistant commissioner of Metropolitan Police — resigned. On Monday, it was learned Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, was found dead at his home in England. His death wasn't being considered suspicious.
Hoare was quoted by the New York Times as saying that phone hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then editor Andy Coulson, who most recently served as Cameron's communications chief. Coulson is one of numerous people arrested as part of the phone-hacking investigation.Sean Hoare, the first person to link former News of the World editor Andy Coulson to Britain's phone hacking scandal, was found dead Monday. Police say his death is not considered suspicious. (News International/Associated Press)
Murdoch and his son, James Murdoch, heralded as News Corp.'s heir-apparent, and his father's former British chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, are set to testify mid-morning.
Yates decided two years ago not to reopen police inquiries into phone hacking and police bribery by tabloid journalists, saying he did not believe there was any new evidence. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year, and apparently have the names of 3,700 potential victims.
Yates told the committee on Tuesday that had he known then what he knows now, "I would have made a completely different decision."
Brooks was chief executive of News International, whose News of the World is accused of hacking into the phones of celebrities, politicians, other journalists and even murder victims. The long-simmering scandal gained heightened interest with the revelation that journalists accessed the phone of Milly Dowler in search of scoops while police were looking for the missing 13-year-old.
Brooks admitted during her appearance before U.K. legislators in 2003 that News International had paid police for information. But she maintained she did not know any phone hacking was going on when she was editor between 2000 and 2003.
Scandal threatens to spread
At Tuesday's committee hearing, politicians are seeking more details about the scale of criminality at News of the World. The Murdochs will try to avoid incriminating themselves or doing more harm to their business without misleading Parliament, considered a criminal offence.
London's Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned Monday. He's the second top official to resign in the British phone hacking scandal. Scotland Yard chief Paul Stephenson stepped down Sunday night. (Lewis Whyld/Associated Press)
The scandal has already destroyed News of the World, cost the jobs of Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton, and sunk Murdoch's dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.
Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based.
Hinton, too, could face questioning over wrongdoing at the News of the World during his dozen years as executive chairman of News International. But he is an American citizen living in the U.S., so British authorities would have to seek his extradition if he refused to go willingly.
The scandal has tested the leadership of 80-year-old Rupert Murdoch, and there has been speculation it would speed up his retirement.
But on Monday, News Corp. board member Thomas Perkins said Murdoch has the full support of the company's board of directors, and is not considering replacing him with chief operating officer Chase Carey.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Perkins denied a report that said independent directors considered the company's succession plan, including naming Carey as CEO.
The AP also reported that Bloomberg News, citing unnamed sources, said a decision on a replacement at the top of News Corp. depended in part on Murdoch's performance before Parliament.
10 arrests linked to scandal
Perkins, 79, has been an independent News Corp. director since 1996 and is co-founder of Silicon Valley venture capital fund Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.
"I can assure you, there has been no discussion at the board level in connection with this current scandal of making any changes," he said Monday. "The board supports top management totally.
previous1 of 12expandnext
News Corp. chief executive Rupert Murdoch is driven down Whitehall in London before a scheduled appearance before a House of Commons committee. (Steve Parson/AP)
"The board has been misled, as has top management been misled, by very bad people at a very low level in the organization."
Perkins said a succession plan has long been in place given Murdoch's age, but it had not been brought up in light of recent revelations that journalists at News of the World hacked phones and may have paid British police for scoops.
James Murdoch, 38, has said he approved payments to hacking victims when he was chief executive of News Corp.'s European and Asian operations, including £700,000 ($1.1 million) to Professional Footballers' Association chief Gordon Taylor. James Murdoch said last week that he "did not have a complete picture" when he approved the payouts.
News Corp. also Monday named commercial lawyer Anthony Grabiner head of its own panel looking into allegations of wrongdoing. The panel, called the management and standards committee, includes executives who worked for the U.K. unit overseeing the scandal-tainted tabloid.
Perkins said he would "personally make damn sure" that the internal probe would be independent.
The committee will report its findings to Joel Klein, former U.S. assistant attorney general and now head of News Corp.'s education division, and independent director Viet Dinh, a Georgetown University law professor. `
Parliament was to break for the summer on Tuesday after the hearing. Cameron, speaking in Pretoria, South Africa, said "it may well be right to have Parliament meet on Wednesday so I can make a further statement."
Cameron cut short his visit to South Africa as his government faces a growing number of questions about its cozy relationship with the Murdoch empire.
Police have already arrested 10 people, including other former News of the World reporters and editors. One, Press Association royal reporter Laura Elston, was cleared by police on Monday.
None of the others has yet been charged.
0 comments:
Post a Comment