UK parliament recalls James Murdoch over hacking

James Murdoch, heir apparent to his father's News Corp before a phone-hacking scandal engulfed the firm, will return for a second hearing before the UK parliament to explain apparent discrepancies in his evidence.

Murdoch and his 80-year-old father Rupert appeared before the powerful parliamentary committee in July to explain how people working for the News of the World had hacked the phones of thousands to generate stories.

Since then, however, executives working below James Murdoch have contradicted his testimony over what he knew and when, further damaging his reputation and throwing into doubt whether he will one day succeed his father at the top of the $45 billion company.

James, youngest son of Rupert Murdoch, will appear before the culture and media committee to answer further questions on Nov. 10. A spokeswoman for News Corp said he was happy to do so.

The statement came as Murdoch's predecessor at the British newspaper arm, Les Hinton, appeared before the same committee for a third time, saying he had not been involved in a cover-up and that he had not realised the scale of the problem.

"I don't think I was complicit," he said. "Looking back on it now, I will look forward to understanding exactly what did unfold and what we might have done that we did not."

The company, which is paying out large sums in a bid to put the scandal behind it, with payments to phone-hacking victims and to charity, managed to defeat a protest vote at the annual general meeting.

Hinton, who worked for Murdoch for over 50 years, spoke via video link from New York and appeared at times uncomfortable as he struggled to answer several of the questions put to him.