LONDON — British lawmakers were weighing Tuesday whether to recall James Murdoch for further questioning after two former News International executives suggested that the scion of media magnate Rupert Murdoch had misinformed a committee about his knowledge of widespread phone hacking at the company’s News of the World tabloid.
The younger Murdoch, who oversees the European arm of News Corp., has staunchly maintained that until relatively recently, the company believed that illegal phone hacking by News of the World employees — who are now known to have targeted thousands of British citizens — had been limited to one “rogue” reporter who was jailed in 2007. He said he had never seen an e-mail suggesting that a top News of the World reporter was among those using information from a hacked phone. But Tuesday, Tom Crone, a former legal chief of News of the World’s publisher, and Colin Myler, a former editor of the tabloid, reiterated assertions that they had, in fact, informed the younger Murdoch about the e-mail.
In a statement, James Murdoch again denied that he had been made aware of the e-mail.
The Washington Post
