Phone Hacking Scandal and Aftermath
On 7 July 2011, James Murdoch announced the closure of the British tabloid newspaper the News of the World in the wake of a phone hacking scandal.
On 19 July 2011, along with his father, Rupert, he appeared at a hearing of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. He appeared once again before the same committee on Thursday 10 November 2011. James maintained that until late in 2010 he was unaware that more than one "rogue reporter" from the News of the World tabloid had been involved in phone hacking. This statement was challenged by the formal legal manager and editor for the newspaper, who claimed they had informed James of the "Transcript for Neville" email, a potential "smoking gun" indicating several of the newspaper's journalists may have been involved, during the settlement negotiations with Gorden Taylor in 2008 and alerted him to the potential liability if this document became public.
On 22 July 2011, Britain’s prime minister, David Cameron, said that James Murdoch has “questions to answer in Parliament,” a day after former top executives of the News of the World accused the News Corporation executive of giving “mistaken” evidence.
On 23 November 2011, British newspapers reported James Murdoch resigned as chairman of News Group Newspapers (NGN), the holding company above the Sun, News of the World and Times Newspapers Ltd, itself owner of The Times and The Sunday Times. NGN is the company subject to a series of lawsuits all related to the phone hacking scandal. James Murdoch's resignation is also said to be related to the 12-10-2011 resignation of another Dow Jones Executive, Andrew Langhoff, after a company whistleblower revealed an editorial scam and questionable circulation dealings at The Wall Street Journal Europe.
On 29 February 2012, News Corp. announced that James Murdoch would be stepping down as Executive Chairman of its British newspaper arm. The company said he would remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and focus on the company's international TV business, including continued responsibility for BSkyB. He stepped down also from the GlaxoSmithKline board.
On 3 April 2012 he stood down as chairman of BSkyB, but will remain on the board. He was replaced as chairman by Nicholas Ferguson.
On 20 September 2012 James was harshly criticized by the British Office of Communications (Ofcom), which concluded that he "repeatedly fell short of the conduct to be expected of as a chief executive and chairman" and that his lack of action in relation to phone hacking was "difficult to comprehend and ill-judged".
Since the police renewed investigations relating to illegal acquisition of confidential information in 2011, 90 people have been arrested and 16 charged with crimes, many of whom were employees or agents of News International newspapers during the period that James had oversight responsibility and persistantly insisted that phone hacking was limited to a single "rogue reporter" and his private investigator.
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“The aftermath of joy is not usually more joy.”
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