UK lawmakers slam 2 Murdoch execs for phone hacking evidence

Former executives from Rupert Murdoch’s media company News UK have been censured by Parliament for their conduct in the aftermath of the phone hacking scandal.

In September that year the pair went before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee over phone hacking allegations at the now closed paper and other News International titles.

Following a lengthy inquiry into phone-hacking, the culture committee concluded in 2012 that media mogul Murdoch was not fit to run a major worldwide company and raised questions about the competency of his son James.

But Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International – now known as News UK – was cleared of misleading the culture, media and sport select committee during its investigation.

In other findings, the committee said there was “insufficient evidence” Mr Crone misled MPs about the commissioning of surveillance.

The House of Commons Committee of Privileges recommended that the Commons should “formally admonish” Mr Myler and Mr Crone for giving misleading evidence over claims that hacking at the Sunday tabloid was confined to a single “rogue reporter”.

The committee was investigating claims the executives gave misleading evidence over phone hacking to a separate group of MPs at the height of the scandal in 2009.

It is rather uncharted territory, and will test how parliament reacts when witnesses are suspected of misleading its committees.

“If truthful evidence had been given, the scale of the wrongdoing would have emerged far earlier, and we consider that it is likely that the Committee’s conclusions and recommendations would have been drafted differently, in particular as to the involvement in and extent of phone hacking”, the committee said.

Lashing out at the Culture Committee at the time, he added: “It posed as a quasi-judicial body with the right to impose criminal punishments, yet followed none of the usual rules of law and fair process”.

It concluded: ‘The Committee therefore finds Mr Myler (former editor of the News of the World) and Mr Crone (former legal manager at News International) to have been in contempt of the House’. “I stand by the evidence I gave on both of the issues they have highlighted”, said Crone. That is a matter of record which is beyond challenge. Hinton told PA it was “too little and too late”.

“The CMSC reached its false findings in 2012”. The former editor said he had not misled Parliament and said the committee’s findings against him were “plainly contradicted” by evidence within its own report.

Mr Crone disputed today’s committee findings.

News Corp declined to immediately comment on the panel’s findings.