Murdoch says can't appear before key Commons panel

Parliament's media committee "has this morning decided to summon Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch to appear before the select committee at 2:30 pm on Tuesday," the committee said in a statement.

But, hours later, both Murdoch and his son James said that they will not appear before a committee of the House of Commons on Tuesday, but Murdoch said he will depose before the judge-led inquiry announced by Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday.
However, Murdoch's chief of UK operations Rebekah Brooks has accepted to appear before the committee next week, the statement said.

"Murdoch indicated that he is unable to attend to give evidence," it said, adding that his son had conveyed that he also would not be able to testify on the specified date but offered to appear at an alternative date, the earliest of which was August 10.

The Commons Media Committee wants the three to give evidence about the phone hacking, but cannot force Murdoch and his son to appear as they are not UK citizens.
The pressure on a media baron grew as Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg backed moves to make him and his top associates appear before Commons Select Committee. If the Murdochs had "one shred of responsibility or accountability for their position of power, then they should come and explain themselves before a Commons Select Committee," Clegg said in remarks made to BBC radio.

In a statement, the MPs said that serious questions had arisen about the evidence of Brooks and Andy Coulson, both of them former News of the World editors, gave at a previous hearing in 2003.

In a letter to the committee chairman John Whittingdale, Rupert Murdoch said: "Unfortunately, I am not available to attend the session you have planned next Tuesday.
"However, I am fully prepared to give evidence to the forthcoming judge-led public inquiry and I will be taking steps to notify those conducting the inquiry of my willingness to do so."

But, the MPs said, "The committee has made clear its view that all three should appear to account for the behaviour of News International and for previous statements made to the committee in Parliament, now acknowledged to be false."

Whittingdale said the Deputy Sergeant at Arms of the House of Commons would now deliver the summons to the Murdochs in person.

BBC said if the media baron to attend the hearing, the matter would then go to the House which could then decide the Murdochs are in contempt of Parliament.
Quoting the leader of the House Sir George Young, BBC said, there were a range of sanctions available if individuals failed to respond to summons to the appear before a select committee including fines and imprisonment.

The dramatic developments came as British police arrested another former News of the World executive in connection with the phone-hacking scandal.

British media identified the arrested man as Neil Wallis, 60, the former executive editor and deputy editor of the News of the World, who left the paper in 2009.Scotland Yard said the man had been arrested on "suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications." Wallis was the deputy editor under Andy Coulson.