United Kingdom

Murdoch flies in to save crumbling empire

Published on 11 July 2011 at 10:15

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“Police to interview Brooks as Murdoch takes control,” headlines the Times, after its owner, US-based press baron Rurpert Murdoch, jetted into London to salvage his News Corp behemoth, tottering in the wake of a phone hacking scandal which led to the shutdown of his 168 year old top-selling paper, News of the World. After it emerged that the Sunday tabloid, under the 2000-2003 editorship of Rebekah Brooks, had hacked the phones of child murder victims and the families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan, the News of the World published its final edition this Sunday 10 July. Ms Brooks is now to be interviewed by police, as more revelations emerge suggesting that Andy Coulson, the Prime Minister’s former director of communications, approved payments to police officers for help with stories when he was Editor of the News of the World between 2003 and 2007. Mr Murdoch’s arrival demonstrates his keenness to clean up News Corp’s reputation as more questions are raised about its controversial takeover of BSkyB - the UK’s largest public satellite broadcasting company.

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