POLITICAL PRESSURE on Rupert Murdoch has spilled across the Atlantic with two senators leading calls for a legal investigation into whether News Corporation broke US laws in the phone-hacking scandal.
US politicians have waded in to the affair with warnings of "severe" consequences if a report in the London Daily Mirrorthat the News of the Worldattempted to access the voicemails of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks or other Americans is true.
The calls for an inquiry were backed by the families of people who died in the World Trade Center. "Someone should look into it to see if their rights were violated – the family members I've talked to are appalled . . . they have to relive the pain all over again," Jim Riches, a former deputy New York fire chief whose son died in the 9/11 attacks, told Politico. It has not been possible to verify the Daily Mirrorstory.
The calls for an investigation come as Murdoch faces pressure from American shareholders, including pension funds and banks, who have taken legal action saying it is “inconceivable” that the News Corp’s board was unaware of the phone hacking and other illicit practices, and accusing him of using the company for “personal and political objectives”.
Senator Frank Lautenberg has asked the securities and exchange commission and the justice department to investigate whether US laws were broken by Murdoch’s parent company.
In a letter to attorney general Eric Holder, Mr Lautenberg said allegations that journalists at the News of the World in London bribed UK police officers are potentially a breach of the US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which bars American companies from paying bribes abroad.
Another senator, Ray Rockefeller, has described the activities of Murdoch's newspapers in Britain as "offensive" and called for an investigation into whether Americans had their privacy invaded. – ( Guardianservice)