LONDON: News Corp. executive James Murdoch is likely to be recalled to tesitify to British lawmakers after doubts were raised about evidence he gave to them on phone hacking, an MP on the committee said Tuesday.
Parliament's media committee is also set to publish "devastating" revelations soon which will raise new questions over the scandal that has rocked his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire, lawmaker Tom Watson said.
Some former employers of News Corp.'s British newspaper wing News International would be recalled to give more evidence and James Murdoch could be recalled afterwards, he said.
"There is contradictory evidence that the committee is determined to get to the facts on, which is why we are inviting them back and why it would be likely that James Murdoch will come back after [former News International employees] Crone and Myler," said Watson.
Colin Myler, the last editor of the News of the World, which was closed last month amid the scandal, and Tom Crone, the former News International legal manager, contradicted James Murdoch's evidence.
James Murdoch told lawmakers at the hearing on July 19 that he was unaware of an email that could suggest knowledge of hacking at the Murdoch-owned News of the World tabloid went wider than one rogue reporter.
He said that, as chairman of News International, he did not know about the email when he authorised a payout to Gordon Taylor, head of the Professional Footballers Association, over hacking.
But Myler and Crone broke ranks on July 21 to say James Murdoch's recollection of events in 2008 was "mistaken".
The long-simmering scandal erupted into a full-blown crisis last month when new allegations emerged that an investigator working for the News od the World may have hacked the phones of a murdered teenager and relatives of dead British servicemen.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011
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