James Murdoch's name 'inextricably linked' with News Corp phone hacking, corruption scandal

London, Feb 15 (ANI): Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's son James Murdoch is now being 'inextricably linked' with News Corporation's failure to deal properly with phone hacking at News International, an influential shareholder group has claimed.

PIRC, UK's leading independent research and advisory consultancy which has long been petitioning for Murdoch to step down from the boards of News Corp, stepped up its campaign on Tuesday and pointed out that the recent arrest of The Sun's journalists had threatened shareholder value at News Corp, and exposed the flaws in its "organisational culture".

"For investors it is at board level that reform may still be required. James Murdoch's name...is inextricably linked to the company's failure to deal with the hacking issue much earlier, with questions still outstanding over what he knew and when," it said in a note to its members.

PIRC also warned that the arrests had caused 'divisions' within News International and damaged its standing further, The Telegraph reports.

"The company has already issued a public defence of the paper and a commitment to its future but this is unlikely to steady nerves. No-one expects that these arrests will be the last. The role of the MSC is also creating divisions within the company, with some journalists seeing it as selling them out," it said.

Five Sun journalists were recently arrested as part of Operation Elveden, the police investigation into alleged corrupt payments, on the basis of evidence handed over by News Corporation's influential Management Standards Committee (MSC).

PIRC also said that the hacking and bribery scandal had been exaccerbated by News Corp's behaviour.

"Its approach seems informed by a kind of 'never retreat, never apologise' mindset, as seen in its aggressive (and mendacious) attacks on politicians and rival papers when the allegations of widespread phone hacking first emerged in 2009," it said. (ANI)