Murdoch scandal has parliament investigation today

This Tuesday morning, at 09h30 a.m., Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch, father and son who run the News Corporation, the company which owns the British branch News International, which was responsible for the newspaper News Of The World, are attending a Parliament investigation. Together with Rebekah Brooks, the former executive for News International, they are going to answer questions about the phone-hacking scandal.

People In Charge

While the Murdochs are directly responsible for all media that run under their business, Brooks was summoned for being editor during the period when the phone-hackings by their own reporters happened inside the NOTW office. Brooks left her position as executive at News International of her own free will, as Murdoch declared that he did not have the intention of firing her. Until then, Brooks was one of the most powerful British women in the communication business.

At first, the Parliament had invited the three of them to the meeting, which was already scheduled for today, but the invitation was not a formal notice. Now, if they had not appeared, the invitation would have legal validation against them. After the formal notice was sent, James released a statement under News Corp.´s name informing that they would cooperate as much as they could.

News Corp.’s Apology

In order to minimize the consequences that the scandal had with the British readers, News Corp. publicized a “we are sorry” statement, signed by Murdoch himself, which was printed in local newspapers. Besides that, Murdoch said that he is ashamed of what happened inside one of his newspapers and that he was misled during that period, as he stated that he does not know who lied to him and did not have knowledge of what was happening during the period when the phone-hacking took place.

At first, the accusations only mentioned celebrities, royals, politicians, and other public figures as victims of the hacking. However, the case grew when Milly Dowler, the victim of a murder and rape, also had her voice-mail inbox hacked by reporters. Some messages were erased, which led the Dowler family to believe that she could still be alive.