British government moves against Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch faced an onslaught from British lawmakers Tuesday as the government backed calls for him to drop his bid for pay TV giant BSkyB and a committee summoned him to answer questions on phone hacking. Former prime minister Gordon Brown also piled pressure on Murdoch's media empire, accusing it of hiring "criminals" to obtain his private documents and suggesting it used illegal methods to break the news of his son's illness.
Scotland Yard added to the 80-year-old tycoon's woes, accusing his newspapers of blocking their investigations into hacking at the News of the World, the beleaguered tabloid that Murdoch axed on Sunday. In a rare show of unity in Britain's fractious parliament against the one-time kingmaker of British politics, the coalition government looked set to back a motion being introduced by the opposition Labour party on Wednesday urging Murdoch to withdraw his bid for full control of satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
"We are intending to support it," a spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron's Downing Street office said. Murdoch flew to Britain on Sunday to take control of the crisis and on Tuesday he met with News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, who was News of the World editor at the time of some of the hacking, and other key figures. Lawmakers took advantage of his presence to call on him, his son, News Corp executive James Murdoch, and Brooks to appear to face questions about hacking and allegations that Murdoch papers paid police for information.
News International said it would "cooperate" with the request from the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee to appear next week, but did not immediately confirm their attendance. Murdoch is not the only one facing pressure from lawmakers. Senior police officers were grilled by a committee on Tuesday about how an original probe into the News of the World in 2006, which resulted in the jailing of two people, failed to unearth a trove of further allegations. The fresh claims, including that the tabloid hacked the voicemails of a murdered teenager and the relatives of dead soldiers, finally emerged last week and unleashed the public outrage that led to the demise of the paper.