Rupert Murdoch backs Rebekah Brooks over phone-hacking allegations

News Corp founder describes latest News of the World revelations as ‘deplorable and unacceptable’ Rupert Murdoch, the News Corporation founder, on Wednesday took the highly unusual step of issuing an official public statement backing Rebekah Brooks over the phone-hacking scandal engulfing his UK newspaper business. Murdoch described the recent allegations about phone hacking and payments to police officers by the News of the World “deplorable and unacceptable”. “I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership,” he added. Murdoch also said he has asked Joel Klein, who heads News Corp’s recently created education unit, “to provide important oversight and guidance”. Viet Dinh, a non-executive director, is keeping the News Corp board informed along with Klein, Murdoch said. His statement came after it emerged on Wednesday that News International will claim Brooks, the News of the World publisher’s chief executive, was on holiday when a mobile phone belonging to Milly Dowler was hacked in to in 2002 when she was editing the Sunday tabloid. The Guardian understands that the company has established that Brooks, News of the World editor from May 2000 until January 2003, was on holiday in Italy when the paper ran a story which referred to a message that had been left on the teenager’s phone. The article, which was about a message left by an employment agency on the murdered schoolgirl’s mobile, was published on 14 April 2002. News International also believes Brooks was away in the two weeks following the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in Soham. It is thought that mobile phones belonging to the parents of the two girls were targeted in the days following their death. That is likely to focus attention on Andy Coulson, who was Brooks’s deputy at the time, and would normally have edited the paper in her absence. Coulson replaced Brooks as editor in early 2003 and has always maintained that he was unaware of any phone-hacking activity by the News of the World. He resigned in January 2007 after the royal reporter, Clive Goodman, and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for intercepting the voicemail messages of members of the royal household, saying he accepted responsibility for what had happened but knew nothing about it. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers Rupert Murdoch Rebekah Brooks News of the World News International James Robinson guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 6, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.