Rupert Murdoch not fit to run media empire, says committee

MEDIA mogul Rupert Murdoch is not “a fit person” to run a major international corporation, a committee of MPs said today.

In a devastating report into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the News Corporation chief of exhibiting “wilful blindness” towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.

It said News Corp had been guilty of “huge failings of corporate governance” and its instinct had been “to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators”.

But the committee was split on the findings, with Tory members refusing to endorse the report and branding it “partisan”.

The report accused three former senior executives of News Corp’s UK newspaper publishing arm, News International – Les Hinton, Colin Myler and Tom Crone – of misleading the committee during its inquiries into the scandal.

And it said Rupert Murdoch’s son James had demonstrated “wilful ignorance” about what had been going on.

The most damning judgment was reserved for Rupert Murdoch. “We conclude that, if at all relevant times Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications,” the report said.

“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”

News Corporation said it was “carefully reviewing” the report, adding: “The company fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologises to everyone whose privacy was invaded.”