Rupert Murdoch was expected to fly to London to tackle a scandal engulfing his media empire while journalists prepared the last edition of a best-selling weekly they say he has sacrificed to protect plans to expand his television business.
The planned visit of the News Corp chief executive coincided with calls on Prime Minister David Cameron to speed up an inquiry into phone-hacking allegations which could jeopardise Murdoch's proposed takeover of a British broadcaster. It has also unearthed allegations journalists working for Murdoch and others paid police for information and raised questions about relations between politicians, including Cameron, and powerful media owners like Murdoch.
Alan Rusbridger, editor of the left-leaning Guardian newspaper, said the past week had seen a whirlwind of stunning political, business and judicial developments.
"We've had both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition making the kind of statements that a week ago would have seemed suicidal for politicians, essentially conceding they had turned a blind eye to the abuse of press power because they wanted to keep in with Rupert Murdoch," he said in a video on the Guardian's web page. https://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2011/jul/09/phone-hacking-alan-rusbridger-video?INTCMP=SRCH. News Corp, whose shares have fallen over the scandal, declined to comment on 80-year-old Murdoch's agenda.
A spokeswoman for News International, its British media arm, denied allegations an executive might have destroyed evidence relevant to a police inquiry into the allegations its reporters hacked into the telephones of relatives of troops killed in action and a string of celebrities several years ago.
News International chief Rebekah Brooks, 43, indicated more revelations may emerge in comments to News of the World staff on Friday, a day after she told them the 168-year-old newspaper had become "toxic" and would be shut. "Eventually it will come out why things went wrong and who is responsible. That will be another very difficult moment in this company's history," Brooks said on Friday, according to a recording carried by Sky News.
Murdoch has brushed off calls for Brooks to resign due to her editorship of News of the World during some of the alleged hacking incidents. She denies knowledge of the practice during her watch on the paper, hugely popular due to its celebrity gossip, campaigns and photos of scantily-clad young women. Cameron, a friend and neighbour of Brooks, joined calls for her to step down on Friday at a news conference at which he admitted politicians had been in thrall to media for years and ordered a public inquiry.