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Rupert Murdoch not 'a fit person' to run major firm, UK lawmakers say

By Reuters

LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch is not "a fit person" to run a major international corporation, a multi-party committee of British lawmakers said Monday.

In a devastating report into the tabloid phone-hacking scandal, the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee accused the News Corp chief of exhibiting "wilful blindness" towards the wrongdoing in his organisation.

The report says News Corp's British subsidiary, News International, misled Parliament about the scale of phone hacking at its News of the World weekly tabloid.

It also said the company had deliberately ignored evidence of malpractice, covered up evidence and frustrated efforts to expose wrongdoing.
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"News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited willful blindness, for which the companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately take responsibility," it said.

"Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators," the lawmakers said in an 85 page report.

"Even if there were a 'don't ask, don't tell' culture at News International, the whole affair demonstrates huge failings of corporate governance," they concluded.

However, the report's conclusions were not supported by all the members of the committee. MPs from the ruling Conservative Party gave a dissenting opinion, describing the report as "over the top".

As well as damning News Corp, the report will also embarrass Prime Minister David Cameron, who acknowledged again on Monday that politicians were in thrall to the Murdochs and whose Conservative Party faces local elections across much of Britain on Thursday.

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