James Murdoch underfire at U.K. Parliament

LONDON -- Embattled News Corp. chief operating officer James Murdoch steadfastly insisted that he was unaware of the extent of the phone hacking activities at News of the World when he appeared before a Parliamentary Select Committee for a second time on Thursday. Sitting this time without his father Rupert by his side, Murdoch Jr. repeatedly denied he had misled Parliament and emphasized that he had no knowledge of how widespread the illegal activities at the now-defunct tabloid paper were as he was fiercely grilled by a group of Members of Parliament in London. Standing by the testimony he gave the committee in July, Murdoch said that wider evidence of phone hacking was not given to him by former NI legal affairs manager Tom Crone nor by former NoW editor Colin Myler, and thus apportioning the blame of the scandal to others. "After the resignation of (Andy) Coulson (former editor of NoW and former spin doctor of Prime Minister David Cameron), (Les) Hinton (the former News International boss) brought Myler in to bring the newspaper forward and if he had known that there was wider spread criminality I think he should have told me," he said. The session, which lasted more than 2 1/2 hours, began with Murdoch denying any knowledge of the so-called "for Neville" email -- the email which revealed exactly how widespread the phone hacking activities were in the org -- and claimed to have only read the email "very recently," despite the fact that it was published in a 2010 committee report. Asked whether he too felt "humbled" by the events that have unfolded, a word his father Rupert used so memorably back in July in front of the committee, Murdoch responded: "I have had some time to reflect on these events. It's appropriate to reflect and I think the whole company is humbled by this. "What I'm trying to do is learn from the events over the last couple of years and try to understand why the company couldn't come to grips with the issues in as fast a way as I would have liked. "We are all humbled by itit is something that we are very sorry about." When he was asked about the legal advice given my Michael Silverleaf QC to News Intl., who emphasized that there was a culture of illegal activities happening at the company in 2008, Murdoch claimed he was not given the right information. "It is clear to me that in 2008 the information I received was incomplete and it's also clear that in 2009 upon allegations that the full extent of the knowledge was not made clear to me and that is something that I am very sorry for." Questioning took a dramatic turn when MP Tom Watson accused Murdoch of subscribing to a Mafia-style "code of silence" over the illegal activities. Asked whether the term "omerta" -- a group of people bound together by secrecy -- was an accurate description of News Intl. in the U.K., Murdoch responded: "Absolutely not, I think it's offensive and it's not true." "I think you must be the first mafia boss in history who didn't know he was running a criminal enterprise," said Watson to Murdoch, before Murdoch called his line of questioning "inappropriate." Murdoch has always insisted that he was ignorant of the fact that phone hacking was widespread when he authorized a payment of 700,000 ($1.1 million) to soccer official Gordon Taylor in 2008 when his phone was hacked. Additionally, Murdoch did not rule out axing The Sun, one of the other three remaining U.K. newspapers at News Intl., if further evidence of phone hacking at the company surfaced. Since the news that phone hacking was endemic at papers under the News Intl. banner, the scandal has had a seismic effect on Rupert Murdoch's media empire News Corp. A number of execs have resigned in the wake of the scandal including Rebekah Brooks, former News Intl. topper, and Hinton, former chief exec of Dow Jones and Rupert Murdoch's right-hand man. John Hartigan, long-time chairman and chief exec of News Limited, News Corp.'s Australian operations, stepped down on Wednesday. James Murdoch, who also serves as chairman of U.K. paybox BSkyB, is facing an increasing amount of pressure, challenging his position at the company. In October, he survived an attempt by News Corp. stockholders to remove him as director. Contact Diana Lodderhose at diana.lodderhose@variety.com