MPs to recall James Murdoch over phone hacking

LONDON: British lawmakers said on Tuesday they will recall Rupert Murdoch's son James Murdoch for a second grilling about phone hacking at the now-closed News of the World.

Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp.'s British newspaper subsidiary News International, will face questions about allegations that he misled an earlier hearing when he denied that he knew hacking was widespread at the Sunday tabloid.

Parliament's media committee grilled both Murdochs in a high-profile public hearing in July, and committee chairman John Whittingdale said on Tuesday that James Murdoch would be asked back to answer some unresolved questions.

"The committee is beginning to reach the end of its deliberations, we've spent a lot of time on this, but there is still one or two loose ends that we want to tie up," Whittingdale told Sky News television.

He added: "As a final session we will have some more questions based on what we've heard which we'll want to put to James Murdoch."

In his testimony in July, James Murdoch denied he had ever seen an email which appeared to prove that phone hacking at the News of the World was carried out by more than one rogue reporter and a private detective.

But his testimony has been contradicted by the tabloid's former editor, Colin Myler, and its former legal manager, Tom Crone, who told the committee last week that they discussed the email with James Murdoch during a meeting in 2008.

James Murdoch, 38, has consistently stood by his testimony and News Corp., where he is deputy chief operating officer, said he would attend the hearing.

"James Murdoch is happy to appear in front of the committee again to answer any further questions members might have," a spokeswoman for the company said.

The committee also said it would recall long-time Rupert Murdoch aide Les Hinton, who was chairman of News International when the phone hacking took place, and went on to become chief executive of News Corp.'s Dow Jones unit.

Hinton quit Dow Jones in July at the height of the hacking scandal, although he denied any knowledge of alleged hacking.

Whittingdale said the committee would also ask for new evidence from News International lawyers Farrer's as well as Mark Lewis, the lawyer who has represented many of the hacking victims.

Lawyers told the High Court in London that Sheila Henry, whose son Christian Small died when a suicide bomber blew up an underground train, launched legal proceedings against News Group Newspapers earlier this week.

Police are believed to have told Henry that her son's phone was targeted by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the hacking scandal, in the aftermath of the bombings.

It is understood that she had left messages trying to find out her son's location on the day in which 52 people died.

Mulcaire and the News of the World's royal reporter, Clive Goodman, were jailed in 2007 for phone hacking but executives insisted that the practice was confined to the two men.

Mounting evidence to the contrary forced the police to reopen their investigations in January, and the scandal exploded in July when it was claimed that Mulcaire hacked the phone of a missing girl who was later found murdered.

The News of the World was closed, Hinton and News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks resigned and more than a dozen people were arrested, including Prime Minister David Cameron's former media chief, Andy Coulson, a former editor of the paper.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011