08 june 2012
UK's Cameron to face media ethics inquiry
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London: British media ethics inquiry said on Friday that
Prime Minister David Cameron will give evidence next week, amid
questions over his ties to a number of suspects in the country's tabloid
phone hacking scandal.
The judge-led inquiry, which Mr Cameron
set up to examine malpractice in the media and ties between politicians
and the press, said it would also take testimony from ex-leaders Gordon
Brown - who had an often troubled relationship with British newspapers -
and John Major.
It confirmed it would also take evidence from
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Treasury chief George Osborne,
Scottish leader Alex Salmond and main opposition Labour Party leader Ed
Miliband, who has been a vocal critic of Rupert Murdoch's media empire
since the phone scandal erupted.
Mr Cameron, who will give evidence in a day-long session on
Thursday, has been stung by his links to key figures in Mr Murdoch's
British newspaper operations.
His former communications chief
Andy Coulson has been arrested and charged by police with perjury in a
case connected to the scandal, while two of Mr Cameron's friends have
also been charged over alleged attempts to hamper the inquiry into phone
hacking.
Ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks
and her husband Charlie - a friend of Mr Cameron since their school days
- live close to the British leader's home in southern England. Both
face allegations of perverting the course of justice.
Mr Coulson,
who quit as Cameron's top media aide in January 2011, and Ms Brooks are
both former editors of the News of The World tabloid, which was closed
down by Mr Murdoch last July amid a wave of public revulsion at
revelations that staff routinely hacked the cellphone voice mail
messages of those in the public eye.
Charlie Beckett, director of
the POLIS media institute at the London School of Economics, said Mr
Cameron's judgment is likely to come under scrutiny, but warned those
who expect the leader to be humbled are likely to be disappointed.
"It's
difficult to see what the killer questions are. As the politicians have
given evidence the inquiry's tone hasn't had that same feel of a trial,
as it did when journalists were being questioned," he said.
The inquiry, which opened in September, has seen reporters and editors intensely grilled on media practices.
Opposition
lawmakers, including Mr Miliband, have insisted that Mr Cameron's
decision to hire Mr Coulson - and to keep friendly ties to Ms Brooks -
shows a failure of judgment.
Mr Cameron has long insisted that
Coulson had deserved a "second chance" after he quit the News of the
World in 2007 when a reporter and private investigator were jailed in
what the company claimed at the time was an isolated case of phone
hacking.
The British leader will also face questioning over his
decision to assign Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to make an impartial
decision on a takeover deal by Mr Murdoch's News Corp.
Mr Hunt
was made responsible in December 2010 for a decision on whether News
Corp. should be authorised to take full control of satellite broadcaster
British Sky Broadcasting, in which it holds a 39 percent stake.
Mr
Cameron turned to Mr Hunt after Britain's Business Secretary Vince
Cable was taped by undercover reporters claiming he planned to "declare
war on Murdoch," and subsequently removed from making the decision on
the grounds of bias.
But the inquiry has already published a
letter Mr Hunt sent to Cameron before he was assigned to adjudicate on
the takeover in which he warned that blocking the deal would damage
Britain's media industry.
Giving his own evidence to the inquiry
last week, Mr Hunt said his cozy ties to the tycoon's media empire were
well known to the British leader, raising doubts over Mr Cameron's
decision-making.
