By Kevin McCauley
News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch called allegations of phone hacking and payments made to the police by its British tabloid News of the World as "deplorable and unacceptable," according to a statement released today by the media combine.
He pledged its News International unit, which is headed by Rebekah Brooks, is "fully and proactively cooperating with police."
News Corp. has named Joel Klein, the former New York public school chief and executive in charge of the media combine’s educational ventures, and independent director Viet Dinh, a former assistant attorney general during the Bush II administration, to provide oversight of the hacking situation and guidance to the board.
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron told Parliament today that inquiries are needed into the reports that News of the World hacked the phone of a 13-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 2002 while Brooks served as editor of the tabloid.
"We are no longer talking here about politicians and celebrities, we are talking about murder victims, potentially terrorist victims, having their phones hacked into," Cameron said. "It is absolutely disgusting, what has taken place, and I think everyone in this House and indeed this country will be revolted by what they have heard and what they have seen on their television screens." |