Watchdog attacks James Murdoch’s failures in hacking scandal

James Murdoch's decisions over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal were “both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged”, a media watchdog ruled today.

In a scathing report, Ofcom raised questions about the former News International chairman’s “competence… and his attitude towards the possibility of wrongdoing in the companies for which he was responsible”.

The regulator found that Mr Murdoch’s actions “repeatedly fell short of the conduct expected of a chief executive officer and chairman”.

However, Ofcom concluded that the “evidence available to date does not provide a reasonable basis to find that James Murdoch knew of widespread wrongdoing or criminality at the News of the World”.

Officials warned that they could revise their conclusions if further evidence was unearthed by the various long-running criminal investigations into News International.

Ofcom’s report follows a year-long investigation into whether BSkyB was a “fit and proper” company to hold a broadcasting licence after the phone-hacking allegations emerged last summer. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp owns a 39 per cent share of BSkyB.

The watchdog has sweeping powers to revoke broadcasting licences if owners or management are not found to be “fit and proper” to hold them. Today, it cleared BSkyB “based on the evidence currently available and having taken into account all the relevant factors”. But James Murdoch, 39, who was chairman of News International from 2007 until last year, came in for strong criticism: “We consider James Murdoch’s conduct, including his failure to initiate action on his own account on a number of occasions, to be both difficult to comprehend and ill-judged.

“We consider that the events... raise questions regarding James Murdoch’s competence in the handling of these matters, and his attitude towards the possibility of wrongdoing in the companies for which he was responsible.” Mr Murdoch was also BSkyB’s chairman until last April when he resigned after admitting he was a “lightning rod” for the broadcaster. Today, Ofcom ruled that he could remain as a non-executive director.

Robert Peston, the BBC’s business editor, tweeted: “Clear implication of Ofcom report is BSkyB would have been declared ‘not fit & proper’ if James Murdoch had not stood down as chairman.”

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has campaigned against News International, told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “I do think it shows there are flaws in Ofcom’s methodology — they can’t do deep investigations in the way that other organisations can.