RUPERT Murdoch yesterday publicly expressed the horror and revulsion he felt when he heard the details of the phone hacking scandal but insisted he was not to blame for the "fiasco".
“I was absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed when I heard about the Milly Dowler case only two weeks ago,” he told members of the House of Commons Culture Committee.
Asked by Labour backbencher Tom Watson, who has doggedly pursued the phone hacking allegations, when he became aware criminality was “endemic” at the News of the World, the News Corp chief replied: “Endemic is a very hard, a very wide-ranging word. I also have to be very careful not to prejudice the course of justice that is taking place now. That that has been disclosed, I became aware of as it became apparent.”
Asked by Jim Sheridan, the Labour MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire North, about who was ultimately responsible for the “fiasco” at the News of the World, Rupert Murdoch, pointing out how the former Sunday tabloid had been just 1% of his media empire, said: “The people I trusted and then, maybe, the people they trusted.”
Asked by Tory backbencher Louise Mensch whether he would resign, he replied: “No, because I feel the people I trusted, I don’t know at what level, let me down and I think they behaved disgracefully, betrayed the company and me and it’s for them to pay. Frankly, I’m the best person to clear this up.”
The 80-year-old businessman pointed out he had to deal with a “multitude of issues” every day and admitted: “The News of the World, perhaps I lost sight of. Maybe because it was so small in the general frame of our company.”
He said the reason why Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper was closed was because “we felt ashamed at what happened; we had broken our trust with our readers”.
Asked when he was informed about payments to hacking victims, football chief Gordon Taylor, reportedly paid £600,000, and publicist Max Clifford, supposedly given £1 million, Rupert Murdoch paused and said: “No.”
Under cross-examination, James Murdoch, the media mogul’s son, gave the most detailed answers, repeatedly saying how sorry he and his father were for the victims in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.
“It is a matter of great regret of mine, my father’s and everyone at News Corporation. These actions do not live up to the standards our company aspires to everywhere around the world,” he told the committee.
“It is our determination both to put things right, make sure these things don’t happen again, and to be the company I know we have always aspired to be.”
Mr Murdoch revealed he and his father had taken advice on the “context of the setting” of the committee but stressed: “We were advised fundamentally to tell the truth and be as open and transparent as possible.”
He said it was only as result of civil actions it became apparent the practice of phone hacking extended beyond former royal reporter Clive Goodman and private detective Glenn Mulcaire, who were jailed in 2007.
The media tycoon’s son claimed the company had acted “swiftly” as soon as it became aware of fresh evidence over phone hacking following a series of civil actions in 2010, particularly the case involving actress Sienna Miller.
It became apparent more people than originally thought were victims of having their vociemails intercepted.
“Subsequent to our discovery of that information in one of these civil trials at the end of 2010, which was the Sienna Miller case, the company immediately went to look at additional records around the individual involved, the company alerted the police and restarted, on that basis, the investigation that is now under way,” he explained.
The company had apologised to the phone hacking victims “unreservedly, which I repeat today,” he said adding: “The company acted as swiftly and transparently as possible.”
He admitted to being “surprised and shocked” to learn News International was still paying the legal fees of Glenn Mulcaire -- the private investigator jailed for phone hacking in 2006 -- while his father said he would like to end this arrangement.
In his closing statement, Rupert Murdoch said he had made his “share of mistakes” but at no time had he felt as “sickened” as when he found out what the Dowler family had been through.
He said he would work tirelessly to win the forgiveness of phone-hacking victims and had great respect for British people.
Earlier, asked why he had not accepted Rebekah Brooks’s original offer to resign as chief executive of News International, before she eventually stood down on Friday, Mr Murdoch said: “Because I believed her and I trusted her and I do trust her.
“In the event, she just insisted. She was at a point of extreme anguish.”
Meanwhile, Mrs Brooks, giving evidence separately, told how she was repeatedly told by the News of the World the hacking allegations were untrue.
She explained it was only after she saw papers lodged in a civil damages case brought by Ms Miller last year that she understood how serious the situation was.
“We had been told by people at News of the World at the time -- they consistently denied any of these allegations in various internal investigations. It was only when we saw the Sienna Miller documentation that we realised the severity of the situation.
“Clearly, what happened at the News of the World and certainly (with) the allegations of voicemail intercepts of victims of crime is pretty horrific and abhorrent.”
Following her arrest on Sunday by police investigating the phone-hacking allegations, Mrs Brooks said she was appearing with her lawyer, although she stressed she intended to be as open as possible.
“Since the Sienna Miller documents came into our possession at the end of December 2010, that was the first time the senior management of the company had seen some documentary evidence relating to a current employee. We acted quickly and decisively then.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article