Rupert Murdoch ‘must be grilled’ says Clegg
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg calls for Rupert Murdoch to appear before MPs to answer questions about the phone-hacking scandal.
The Liberal Democrat leader said there were “big questions” to answer about the fitness of Mr Murdoch‘s empire to own media in Britain.
He also warned that unacceptable practices had spread much wider than News International, and drastic action was needed to “clean things up”.
Asked about the Commons Culture Committee’s request for Mr Murdoch, his son James and embattled News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks to give evidence next week, Mr Clegg said media proprietors should agree to appear at such events.
“If they have any shred of sense of responsibility or accountability for their position of power, then they should come and explain themselves before a select committee,” he said.
Mr Clegg’s comments come after News Corp abandoned its £8bn takeover bid to for BSkyB.
The company has admitted that the outrage sparked by allegations about its UK newspapers meant that a deal to take full control of the satellite broadcaster was “too difficult to progress”.
The decision to scrap the deal came just before the House of Commons united in its support for a motion tabled by Labour leader Ed Miliband calling for News Corp to drop the plan.
Meanwhile, a US Senator has said he suspects News Corp of criminal activity in the US.
The Democratic Senator Jay Rockefeller, who chairs the powerful Senate Commerce Committee, said that he is considering holding a hearing into whether News Corp employees broke the law by hacking US citizens.
He has called for an investigation into allegations that 9/11 victims may have had their phones hacked.
Ninth arrest
A 60-year-old man has been arrested today over phone hacking at the News of the World. He has been widely named as Neil Wallis, a News of the World executive editor.
Detectives from Operation Weeting – the Scotland Yard investigation into mobile interceptions by News International – are understood to have raided an address in west London.
The man was taken for questioning at a local police station on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.
