By Kevin McCauley
News Corp. has established a new ethics structure consisting of five compliance groups to improve its anti-corruption controls.
In an email to staffers, CEO Rupert Murdoch said while bolstering News Corp.’s compliance program takes time and money, the “costs of non-compliance-in terms of reputational harm, investigations, lawsuits and distraction from our mission to deliver on our promises to consumers are far more serious.”
He named Gerson Zweifach, senior executive VP and group general counsel, chief compliance officer. Zweifach joined News Corp in February from Williams & Connolly.
He’s assisted by associate general counsel Lisa Fleischman, who takes on the deputy chief compliance officer role.
The compliance groups are Los Angeles film & TV production, Los Angeles cable & broadcast, New York news & information, Europe & Asia and Australia.
Murdoch emphasized that the new ethics oversight unit “is not based on any suspicion of wrongdoing by any particular business unit or its personnel. Rather, it is a forward-looking review based on our commitment to improve anti-corruption controls throughout the company.”
News Corp. took a $224M fiscal 2012 charge for litigation settlement in connection with the U.K. phone hacking scandal at its now-closed News of the World tabloid. |