Phone-hacking Inquiry Seeks Deeper Investigation, Longer Testimony from James Murdoch
News International chief executive James Murdoch is to be invited a second time before a parliamentary committee over a phone-hacking scandal involving his newspaper and hired journalists, CNN reported.
Former senior News Corp. executive Les Hinton is also being called to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the spokesman told CNN Tuesday.
James Murdoch -- who gave evidence before the parliamentary committee in July with his father Rupert -- will face fresh questions from lawmakers after Hinton testifies, provided that the latter agrees to attend, the spokesman added.
Hinton -- one of Rupert Murdoch's longest-standing employees -- resigned as head of News Corp.'s Dow Jones unit and publisher of The Wall Street Journal in July. He was formerly chief executive of News International, the British arm of News Corp. which published News of the World.
The investigating committee heard four former senior News International employees last Tuesday as they continued to look into James Murdoch's role in the phone-hacking scandal.
Among the four was ex-legal affairs director Jonathan Chapman, who named Hinton as the person who had approved a large payment to Clive Goodman, the paper's royal correspondent who was jailed over phone hacking, after Goodman was dismissed from News of the World.
A News Corp. spokesman told CNN James Murdoch was "happy to appear in front of the committee again to answer any further questions members might have."
In his second appearance before the inquiring committee, Murdoch's statements will shed light on the breadth and depth of illegal interception of communications at the now defunct News of the World, and lawmakers should be able to determine whether James gave accurate statements in his previous testimony.
The scandal surrounding News of the World, which also involves accusations of bribing police, has forced two top police officers to resign and put Prime Minister David Cameron under pressure for hiring another former News of the World editor, Andy Coulson, to be his spokesman. Coulson resigned from that job earlier this year.
Mark Lewis, a lawyer representing hacking victims, and legal firm Farrer & Co. -- which has represented News International in a number of cases have also been asked to appear on the same day as Hinton.
Lewis told CNN that the mother of a victim of the July 7, 2005 terror attacks in London is set to join a civil case against Murdoch's newspaper group over alleged phone hacking. Sheila Henry, whose son Christian Small died in one of bomb blasts, will be the sixth in the civil action, he said.
James ordered News of the World closed in July amid the scandal that erupted after his newspaper hacked the voice mail of schoolgirl Milly Dowler after she vanished in 2002. Dowler was later found dead. At least two former newspaper executives have recently made separate statements that James knew the phone hacking was not a one-off incident.