News Corp Faces Two-Front Piracy Accusations in Australia, UK
Fresh accusations of wrongdoings further deepened the existing woes of global media firm News Corporation, which has yet to put behind the hacking scandals that led to the closure of its major daily in the United Kingdom. REUTERS

James Murdoch will appear before the British parliament once again on Nov. 10 to discuss the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, the Media, Culture and Sport Committee announced Monday.

James, the son of News Corportation Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch and the deputy chief operating officer, testified along with his father this summer. They both said they were unaware of the phone hacking taking place.

However, some ex-News Corp. employees claim that James' testimony was inaccurate, leading to the committee to recall him to parliament.

On Monday, Les Hinton, the CEO of News International during the phone hacking, publicly supported James Murdoch in his testimony before the committee. The Associated Press reports Hinton telling members of parliament that there was no reason why James Murdoch should resign.

However, Hinton said he resigned because although unaware, I was in charge of this company at the time of the core wrongdoing.

News Corp. faced heat at their shareholder meeting Friday after prominent investor firms called for the removal of members of the board of directors. Furthermore, Christian Brothers Investment Services introduced a floor proposal to split the role of Chairman and CEO. The company board of directors was accused by shareholder groups of, among other things, not taking on phone-hacking scandal investigations aggressively enough.

Despite some shareholder anger, all of the directors were re-elected and a proposal to split the role of chairman and CEO failed. News Corp. said that voting results are still being tallied but will be available early this week.

News Corp. has set aside £20 million ($32 million) to compensate victims of the scandal, the Associated Press reports. The family of Milly Dowler, a murdered teenager who allegedly had her phone hacked into by News of the World journalists, has received £2 million from the company, and Rupert Murdoch will donate £1 million of his fortune to charities chosen by the Dowlers.

Shares of News Corp. are up 1.05 percent at early afternoon trading to $17.38.

Write to Samuel Weigley at s.weigley@ibtimes.com.

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