James Murdoch faces new grilling by British lawmakers

Rupert Murdoch's son James will appear next month for a second grilling by British lawmakers about phone hacking at the now-closed News of the World tabloid, the MPs said. In a brief statement, parliament's culture, media and sport committee said: "On Thursday 10th November 2011 at 11:00am (1100 GMT) the committee will take evidence from James Murdoch, chairman, News International." News International is the British newspaper subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation media empire. It owned the News of the World before it was closed down in July over allegations that journalists there had hacked the voicemail of a murdered teenage girl. James Murdoch is expected to be quizzed over allegations that he misled the parliamentary committee during a highly-charged hearing with his father in July, when he denied knowledge that hacking was widespread at the tabloid. He insisted he had not seen an email that suggested the practice went beyond the paper's royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, who were jailed for hacking into the voicemails of members of the royal household in 2007. But the tabloid's former editor, Colin Myler, and its former legal manager, Tom Crone, contradicted him at a later committee hearing, saying they discussed the email with James Murdoch in a meeting in 2008. James Murdoch has consistently stood by his testimony and News Corp., where he is deputy chief operating officer, said on Monday he would be willing to appear for a second time before the media committee. "James Murdoch is happy to appear in front of the select committee again to answer any futher questions members might have," a spokeswoman said. James Murdoch is one of a number of people recalled by the committee to answer questions and his predecessor, former News International executive chairman Les Hinton, appeared for a second time earlier on Monday. Hinton resigned as chief executive of News Corp.'s Dow Jones unit in July at the height of the phone hacking scandal, saying that although he knew nothing of the practice he felt he should take responsibility. Speaking to the parliamentary committee via video-link on Monday, Hinton said there was "no reason" why James Murdoch should resign from his post at News International over the hacking row. He acknowledged that previous assurances by the company's executives that hacking was limited to a rogue reporter had turned out to be "not accurate" but challenged MPs' suggestions that they had been "untruthful". He said events had become clear only over the past couple of years and details were still emerging, adding: "I see no reason why James Murdoch should resign." The phone hacking row first emerged in 2006 but after the conviction of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2007, both News International and the police took the matter no further. A string of revelations prompted the police to reopen their investigation in January, and they have since then made numerous arrests, including former News of the World editor and News International chief executive Rebekah Wade. Andy Coulson, another former editor and the media chief of British Prime Minister David Cameron until January this year, was also detained, bringing the scandal into the heart of the British establishment. Cameron subsequently set up a wide-ranging inquiry into media practices.