NEWS INTERNATIONAL head James Murdoch insisted senior executives kept him in the dark about the scale of phone-hacking engaged in by the News of the Worldduring several hours of questioning yesterday by a House of Commons committee.
However, it was clear from the tone of the questions put by the culture, media and sports committee that the explanations offered by Mr Murdoch – son of business magnate Rupert Murdoch – were found to be less than credible.
Labour MP Tom Watson, who was put under surveillance by News of the World-hired private detectives, stunned Mr Murdoch when he alleged he was the "only Mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal organisation".
Decrying the charge as “inappropriate”, Mr Murdoch was left wanting when he sought the help of the committee’s Conservative chairman, John Whittingdale, who merely asked Mr Watson if he had finished.
Conservative MP Damian Collins was equally unimpressed at Mr Murdoch’s defence of his knowledge of the internal workings of the newspaper. It “may not be the Mafia, but it is not exactly Management Today, not out of a management textbook”, he said.
During 2½ hours of questioning, Mr Murdoch insisted that the News of the World'sthen editor Colin Myler and its head of legal affairs Tom Crone had not told him about an e-mail showing that phone-hacking was not just the work of one reporter, Clive Goodman.
In the so-called “For Neville” e-mail – written to the paper’s chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, transcripts of voicemails left on former Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Gordon Taylor’s phone are recorded.
In addition, News International had at that time received legal opinion from top QC Michael Silverleaf, who warned there was "a culture of illegal information access" at the News of the World, which was closed by Mr Murdoch snr before the summer.
“If [Mr Myler] had known that there was wider-spread criminality, I think he should have told me,” said Mr Murdoch, who had flown into London from the US for the questioning. “We have to rely on these people and we have to trust them.” Questioned about the £700,000 compensation and costs paid to Mr Taylor, Mr Murdoch said he had been given “incomplete” information by the two executives. “The full extent of knowledge within the business was not made clear to me,” he said.
Denying that he had misled the MPs, Mr Murdoch rejected the evidence given by Mr Myler and Mr Crone to the committee. “I believe this committee was given evidence by people without full possession of the facts, or it was economical.”
Mr Murdoch had been called to appear before the committee for a second time yesterday because of the Crone/Myler allegations.
An angry Mr Watson, one of the few MPs to have pursued the News of the Worldover phone-hacking, gave details of a conversation that he said he had had with Mr Thurlbeck. In it, Mr Thurlbeck had said Mr Crone had told him that he would show the "For Neville" e-mail to Mr Murdoch.
Mr Thurlbeck had approached Mr Crone because he feared that he would lose his job but, Mr Watson said, Mr Crone subsequently came back to Mr Thurlbeck after meeting Mr Murdoch and said the company was going to pay compensation to end Mr Taylor’s legal action.
Mr Murdoch repeatedly said he could not remember a meeting with Mr Myler where the Taylor settlement was discussed, even though a detailed note was taken by a solicitor, Julian Pike of Farrer Co.