The Spy Report

Murdoch grilled over donations, phone-hacking

Saturday, 16 October 2010 | By Cyril Washbrook

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation (Source: Richard Clement, Reuters)

Rupert Murdoch at a congressional hearing last month (Source: Richard Clement, Reuters)

Rupert Murdoch has defended News Corporation's decision to make two $1 million donations to conservative political organisations, and dismissed allegations of phone-hacking against one of his British tabloids.

Confronting a series of probing questions from labour group shareholders at the corporation's annual general meeting on Friday, the News Corp chairman grudgingly conceded that the donations to the United States Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Governors Association were "unusual", but said that they were justifiable in terms of the corporation's interests.

"We judged it to be in the best interest of the company. It has nothing to do with the editorial policies or the journalism or the films or anything else," he said.

"We believe that it's certainly in the interest of the country and of all the shareholders... that there be a degree of, a fair amount of change in Washington."

'Vote us off the board' if you're not happy

The donations, in the lead-up to the congressional mid-term elections in the United States, raised hackles among progressive politicians and commentators, who suggested that the size of the contributions compromised the ability of News Corp's outlets - particularly Fox News - to report objectively.

One shareholder, F&C Investments, said prior to the meeting that it would oppose the re-election of Sir Rod Eddington, the corporation's audit committee chairman, saying that the lack of a transparent "political contributions policy or process" was concerning.

But Murdoch said that there were no plans to institute a substantially more transparent process surrounding donations.

"Sorry, you have the right to vote us off the board," he said tersely.

Ongoing phone-hacking couldn't have happened

Murdoch defended News of the World, the News International tabloid under siege over phone-hacking allegations. According to The Guardian, he reiterated previous statements by News Corporation and its British publishing arm, claiming that there could not have been any systemic illegal activities going on.

"There was one incident more than five years ago... the person who bought the bugged conversation [News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman] was immediately fired.

"If anything was to come to light, and we have challenged those people who have made allegations to provide evidence... we would take immediate action."

Recent claims made on Channel 4's Dispatches programme suggested that Andy Coulson, the former editor of News of the World and now the British prime minister's director of communications, had personally listened to and read transcripts of hacked phone messages. None of News International's national newspapers reported on the allegations made in the Dispatches documentary when it aired earlier this month.

"Journalists who have been fired or unhappy or who are now working for other organisations I do not take as authority," Murdoch said.

Media Spy discussion: News Corporation

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