James Murdoch Resigns, Still Has Issues
James Murdoch’s official resignation from News International was announced on Wednesday.
The announcement came months after a phone hacking scandal took over the media conglomerate of James’ father, Rupert. Although James will retain his position as the chairman of News International, he stepped down as director of News Group Newspapers.
News Corp released a statement to avoid confusion in the matter.
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"Following the appointment of Tom Mockridge as CEO of News International, in September James Murdoch stepped down from the boards of a number of News International subsidiary companies including News Group Newspapers (NGN) and Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL),” the statement said. “He remains Chairman of NI Group Ltd (News International) and a director of Times Newspapers Holdings Ltd (TNHL), the holding company of Times Newspapers."
The NGN board in which James resigned from oversaw the News of The World tabloid known for the phone hacking scandal that erupted last July involving the U.K. government, celebrities and victims of crime and terror.
Although Rupert Murdoch apologized for the incident, NGN received various lawsuits from numerous victims of the scandal including celebrities Jude Law and Sienna Miller. Other celebrities like actor Hugh Grant have spoken up about the ethical issues taking place in newspapers.
Some feel that it is in James’ best interest to resign from having control of the news publications. Claire Enders, analyst at Enders Analysis, said he could make no positive changes in the position.
"It may well be there's no further good from having James Murdoch as chairman of News International,” Enders said. "It's been clearly flagged up by John Whittingdale that the Culture, Media and Sport select committee is not satisfied by the explanations of James Murdoch even though they don't think he's been mendacious."
Despite his resignation, Enders said Murdoch still has problems to deal with.
"He can step down from all these positions but he won't stop any of the other issues surrounding his stewardship," Enders said in London Evening Standard reports.
