Murdoch hits back at UK politicians

The British media described Murdoch’s testimony before Britain’s media ethics committee as the “Revenge of the Murdochs” as the Murdochs revealed Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, who is lead minister for the London Olympics, leaked information to them about their bid to take over satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

Emails and text messages exchanged between the public affairs executive of Murdoch’s News Corporation, Frederic Michel, and the special advisor to Hunt, Adam Smith, showed the Murdochs received instruction on how to counter the BSkyB deal’s opponents.

Furthermore, Rupert Murdoch’s son, James, said he had talked about the deal with Prime Minister David Cameron back in 2010.

Investigations into the phone hacking scandal between 2005 and 2007 blamed the whole issue on one ‘rogue’ reporter, Clive Goodman. However, the resumption of investigations last year has revealed links between the scandal and British officials.

Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates resigned over links to the scandal.

In addition, the scandal cast a cloud over decisions made at No 10 when Cameron’s former communications director, Andy Coulson, was arrested “in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking.”

The recent revelations about Britain’s Culture Minister’s links to Murdoch’s media empire shows the phone hacking scandal is certain to be long-running and continue to grip British officials for longer.

ISH/GHN/HE

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