Murdoch attacks 'partisan' report

News Corp. said that a report by British lawmakers on phone hacking, which deemed Rupert Murdoch unfit to lead a global company, contained commentary that was 'unjustified and highly partisan'.

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The New York-based company admitted however that some "hard truths" had emerged from the report by parliament's culture committee into the scandal at the now-closed News of the World tabloid.

A News Corp. statement said the company had "already confronted and (has) acted on the failings documented in the report".

"Hard truths have emerged from the Select Committee Report: that there was serious wrongdoing at the News of the World; that our response to the wrongdoing was too slow and too defensive; and that some of our employees misled the Select Committee in 2009," the statement said.

"News Corporation regrets, however, that the Select Committee's analysis of the factual record was followed by some commentary that we, and indeed several members of the committee, consider unjustified and highly partisan.

"These remarks divided the members along party lines."

Four committee members from British Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives refused to approve the report's conclusion that Murdoch "is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company".

But five opposition Labour members combined forces with the sole committee member from the Liberal Democrats -- the junior party in coalition with the Conservatives -- to push the comment through.

News Corp. said that since the scandal broke the company had conducted internal reviews of its newspapers in Britain and around the world that were "far beyond anything asked of us by the Metropolitan Police" in London.

It said it had also volunteered evidence of wrongdoing and made "sweeping" changes to internal controls "to help ensure that nothing like this ever happens again anywhere at News Corporation".

News Corp. shares were up 1.35 percent at $19.87 in early trading in New York, before the statement was issued.



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Published 2 May 2012 6:07am
Updated 26 August 2013 10:48am
Source: AFP


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