Wednesday 25 April 2012

Murdoch aims to 'put myths to bed'


Media mogul Rupert Murdoch said he planned to "put some myths to bed" in his evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.



The 81-year-old said rumours he had not forgiven Prime Minister David Cameron for setting up the inquiry were untrue.
Giving evidence, he said he welcomed the probe: "I think the need is fairly obvious, there have been some abuses shown. I would say there have been many other abuses but we can all go into that in time.
"The state of the media in this country is of absolutely vital interest to all its citizens. Frankly I welcome the opportunity because I wanted to put some myths to bed."
Mr Murdoch admitted he was a "great admirer" of Baroness Thatcher - who the Sun supported in the election of 1979.
Asked by Robert Jay QC, counsel for the inquiry, about tweets suggesting he had a "hostile approach to right-wingers and toffs", the billionaire replied: "Don't take my tweets too seriously. I think I was really saying that the extremists on both sides were piling in on me."
At the start of Wednesday's hearing at London's Royal Courts of Justice, Lord Justice Leveson said he would "hear every side of the story" about Jeremy Hunt's involvement in News Corporation's BSkyB bid before drawing any conclusions.
The inquiry heard evidence from Mr Murdoch's son James on Tuesday suggesting the Culture Secretary secretly backed the proposed takeover and leaked inside information to the media giant.
James Murdoch was questioned about a 163-page dossier of emails detailing contacts between Mr Hunt's office and News Corp director of public affairs Frederic Michel.
Lord Justice Leveson said: "I am absolutely not taking sides or expressing any opinion, but I am prepared to say that it is very important to hear every side of the story before drawing conclusions."

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