The Church of England has sold £1.9m it held in News Corporation shares after the company failed to hold senior managers to account following the phone hacking scandal.
Having raised concerns with News Corp’s board last year the Church said it feared the media group had not learnt lessons.
The Church of England had wanted News Corp to separate the positions of chairman and chief executive. Both are held by Rupert Murdoch. Read more »
With last week’s Leveson inquiry featuring James and Rupert Murdoch, here, here and here, the stage has been set for another riveting piece of media television as Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks take to the stand next week.
The appearance of the former News of the World editor and N0 10′s head of communications, Coulson, could make very uncomfortable viewing for David Cameron. Read more »
After harsh criticism of him personally and his company’s conduct by a UK parliamentary committee, which said Rupert Murdoch was “not fit” to have “stewardship of a major international company”, the News Corporation CEO has sent an email to all staff.
In the email he said that the company “should have acted more quickly to uncover wrongdoing and deeply regretted what took place during years of phone hacking. Read more »
We’re back with more live coverage of News Corporation chief executive Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry.
Today he’s covered the period relating to the phone hacking scandal and the closure of the News of the World and admitted personally failure. Read more »
The New York Times reports that two British lawyers are preparing News of the World phone-hacking related claims in New York.
There have been reports of phone hacking trouble brewing in the US for Rupert Murdoch for months now, after the FBI said it was to investigate News Corp over 9/11 phone hacking claims, but now two prominent lawyers including Mark Lewis are said to be laying the ground work for possible legal action. Read more »
The New York Times is reporting that News Corporation is considering the launch of a new US sports channel to rival ESPN, which is part of the Disney-ABC Television Group owned by Walt Disney.
Plans are said to be at an early stage, but reports on Twitter have suggested the channel could be called Fox Sports 1. Read more »
The hacking scandal just continues to spread. Following Monday night’s Panorama programme (‘Murdoch’s TV Pirates’), which centred on allegations that News Corporation-owned company NDS cracked the smart card codes of pay-TV rival ONdigital in an effort to undermine its business, there are now calls for a probe in Australia.
The BBC programme has also sparked an Ofcom investigation in the UK into the NDS claims, which look likely being echoed in Australia.
NDS is said to have led a pirate attack on ONdigital/ITV Digital, owned by the then ITV companies Granada and Carlton, which eventually went under as a result of counterfeiting by pirates and onerous sports rights deals, leaving the pay-TV field clear for BSkyB. Read more »
The Evening Standard is reporting that with the news that James Murdoch is stepping down from News International, which broke yesterday afternoon, has sparked fresh speculation that News Corporation could sell its newspaper business, which includes The Sun and The Times.
Offloading the newspaper business is even something that News Corp admits it has considered — at least at some point. Although some might think it less likely with Rupert Murdoch personally overseeing the launch of the Sunday edition of The Sun. Read more »
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