* Murdoch railed against police over bribe arrests
* Murdoch suggested such payments common in industry
* Pitched son Lachlan or Robert Thomson as successors
By Kate Holton and Emmaline Okafor
LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch belittled a
British police inquiry into bribes allegedly paid by his
journalists in a secret recording made by his staff, in sharp
contrast to the profuse public apologies he made to defuse anger
at news gathering practices.
Murdoch told staff at his Sun tabloid in a private meeting
in March that he had been wrong to help the police investigation
into tactics he said reporters had used for decades, and
promised unspecified support to reporters snared by the inquiry.
A News Corp spokeswoman defended Murdoch and the
firm but did not question the accuracy of the recording, which
was made by a member of staff at the meeting in London and
obtained by the Exaro investigation website.
Murdoch, the head of News Corp and 21st Century Fox
, had described himself as humbled and appalled by the
revelations of illegality and phone hacking that forced the
closure of his prized News of the World tabloid two years ago.
But in the private meeting with staff the media mogul railed
against police and said he had cooperated too closely with them
when an internal committee he set up supplied thousands of
internal emails at the height of the scandal.
“I will do everything in my power to give you total support,
even if you’re convicted and get six months or whatever,” he
told a room full of Sun journalists, including some of the 23
who have been arrested for making payments to public officials.
“We’re talking about payments for news tips from cops:
that’s been going on a hundred years,” he said, adding that he
remembered being told about the need for cash for “powerful
friends” when he bought the News of the World in 1969.
The recording was made during a meeting designed to rebuild
relations between the two sides following the revelations of
July 2011. It was also aired by Britain’s Channel 4 TV station.
Murdoch, the world’s most powerful media tycoon, was forced
to close his mass-selling News of the World Sunday paper
following the admission that his staff had hacked into the
phones of hundreds of people to generate scoops, including one
owned by a murdered teenager.
Since then, tens more have been arrested from the daily Sun
newspaper for making payments to public officials while others
were arrested for attempts to pervert the course of justice.
The reporters have denied the allegations.
The Australian-born magnate, who had for years been courted
by British politicians from all sides, was forced to appear
before parliament to apologise for the behaviour of his staff.
He was hit in the face with a foam pie by a protester during the
hearing.
A News Corp spokeswoman, responding to the recording, said:
“No other company has done as much to identify what went wrong,
compensate the victims, and ensure the same mistakes do not
happen again,” the spokeswoman said.
“Mr Murdoch never knew of payments made by Sun staff to
police before News Corporation disclosed that to UK Authorities.
Furthermore, he never said he knew of payments. It’s absolutely
false to suggest otherwise.”
NEXT TO NOTHING
“Why are the police behaving in this way?” Murdoch said in
the recording. “It’s the biggest inquiry ever, over next to
nothing.
“What you’re asking is: what happens if some of you are
proven guilty? What afterwards? I’m not allowed to promise you
… I’ve got to be careful what comes out – but frankly, I won’t
say it, but just trust me.”
When one journalist in the room said “it would be nice to
hit back,” Murdoch replied “We will, we will.”
The grainy recording revealed Murdoch at times raising his
voice and sounding angry, at others speaking slowly and with
consideration.
Asked what would happen once the 82-year-old was no longer
around to support the newspapers, Murdoch replied that the
decision would be either with “my son, Lachlan, or with Robert
Thomson. And you don’t have any worries about either of them.”
Robert Thomson is the head of the publishing business called
News Corp which was recently spun off from the entertainment
assets held by 21st Century Fox. Murdoch did not mention his
other son James who had for years been seen as the heir apparent
until he too became tangled up in the hacking affair.
Murdoch said he made the wrong decision when he set up an
internal committee to investigate staff and hand over
information to the police, and spoke with horror at the way his
former protege Rebekah Brooks was detained by officers during an
early morning house raid.
News Corp had previously made much of its cooperation with
the police, which sparked anger from staff who felt they had
been handed over to the authorities and deserted in a bid to
protect the reputation of the wider company.
(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Jon Boyle)
