James Murdoch to be grilled again over hacking scandal

The announcement came after Mr Murdoch’s predecessor Les Hinton was grilled by video-link by the cross-party Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee.

Mr Hinton, the most senior casualty of the hacking scandal so far, told MPs there was “no reason” why Mr Murdoch should resign from his post at News International (NI).

A close lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch who had worked with the News Corp chief for more than 50 years, Mr Hinton quit as CEO of the company’s Dow Jones subsidiary in July as the scale of hacking which took place under his watch at NI-owned News of the World (NoW) became apparent.

Mr Hinton acknowledged that some evidence previously given to the committee by NI executives had turned out to be “not accurate”.

But he challenged MPs’ suggestions that this meant executives had been “untruthful”, insisting that events had become clear only over the past couple of years and the full picture was still not known. Mr Hinton acknowledged that he had seen a letter in 2007 in which former NoW royal correspondent Clive Goodman said that knowledge of phone-hacking was widespread on the tabloid.

He also denied misleading the committee at a previous appearance in 2009 when he said there was “never any firm evidence provided or suspicion provided” of more than one NoW reporter being involved in hacking.

During the 70-minute evidence session, Mr Hinton repeatedly said he could not remember details.

Committee member Tom Watson sarcastically congratulated him: “You’re not doing badly, Mr Hinton. You have only said you can’t remember seven times so far. In 2009 you used it 32 times.”