国际英语新闻:UK Parliament Report: Murdoch ‘Not Fit’ to Head Media Company

A British parliament committee said Tuesday newspaper and television magnate Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to head a media company, part of an unexpectedly strong rebuke to one of the world's most powerful media moguls.

The multy-party committee said Murdoch “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness” while members of his staff electronically broke into telephone voice-mail systems and allegedly bribed policemen to gather information for their stories. 

Corporate failings

The report says there were “huge failings of corporate governance” that allowed tolerance for law-breaking to permeate his organization. It also says Murdoch’s company misled parliament and tried to cover up the wrongdoing.

The head of the journalism department at City University London, Professor George Brock, said the strong words in the report were not expected.

“I think the report has taken one or two people, including me, a bit by surprise because you can be declared unfit to hold a broadcasting license if you are, in the phrase in the law, ‘a not fit and proper person,’” he said.

The parliamentary committee does not have the power to make that decision, but its report likely will be taken into consideration by Britain’s broadcasting authority. The authority said Tuesday it is “continuing to assess the evidence.”

Murdoch’s News Corporation owns 40 percent of British Sky Broadcasting, the country’s largest cable-TV channel, and it owns the U.S.-based, politically conservative Fox News network. It also owns several British newspapers, including the Times and the Sunday Times, and the most popular daily paper, The Sun. 

The phone-hacking allegations forced the closure of Britain’s largest Sunday newspaper, The News of the World, and the resignation of several top Murdoch executives.