Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation will close the News of the World after this Sunday's edition, as a result of an escalating phone hacking scandal, his son James Murdoch said today.
"The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account," the deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation told staff. "But it failed when it came to itself."
The title's Irish edition employs 22 full-time staff and 10 others on a part-time basis. The Irish-based staff were informed by email this afternoon.
Mr Murdoch said the newspaper will not run any adverts in this Sunday’s edition.
“We will run no commercial advertisements this weekend. Any advertising space in this last edition will be donated to causes and charities that wish to expose their good works to our millions of readers," he said in his statement. “These are strong measures. They are made humbly and out of respect. I am convinced they are the right thing to do."
He praised the paper’s achievements but condemned this week’s revelations that phone hacking victims may have included murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, the parents of murdered Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, bereaved military families and relatives of 7/7 bombing victims.
“The good things the News of the World does, however, have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong,” he said. “Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company.”
Mr Murdoch admitted that the paper’s internal inquiry into earlier phone hacking claims was inadequate.
Royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed in 2007 after plotting to intercept voicemail messages left for royal aides.
Mr Murdoch accepted that the paper made statements to Parliament “without being in the full possession of the facts” and said he wrongly approved out-of-court settlements without having a “complete picture” of what had happened.
Mr Murdoch said he wanted all News International’s journalism to be “beyond reproach” and the company was co-operating “fully and actively” with the two Scotland Yard inquiries into allegations of phone hacking and payments to police officers.
He said the company acknowledged it had made mistakes and was doing its “utmost” to “fix them, atone for them, and make sure they never happen again”.
Energy company Npower, telecoms firm O2 and supermarket chain Sainsburys have become the latest companies to pull advertising from the newspaper in the wake of phone-hacking allegations. A number of major brands have already suspended deals with the newspaper, including the Halifax bank, Virgin Holidays, The Co-operative Group, Butlins, Vauxhall and Mitsubishi.
The scandal surrounding the newspaper deepened today with claims it hacked in to the phones of relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The head of the British armed forces, General Sir David Richards, condemned the allegations that bereaved military families’ phones were hacked.
“If these actions are proved to have been verified, I am appalled. I find it quite disgusting,” he told Sky News. “The prime minister, I, everyone across Whitehall in Government, feel very, very strongly about this.”
In 2002, the paper allegedly hacked into messages left on the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler while police were still looking for her.
Police have also been criticised over allegations officers took money from the News of the World for information. London's Evening Standard newspaper said today that police officers took more than £100,000 pounds in payments from senior journalists and executives at the paper.
Today's developments threaten to delay News Corp’s planned take over of broadcaster BSkyB with the British government having received more than 100,000 responses to its consultation process over the proposed takeover.
News Corp’s bid already faced opposition from rivals in the media industry and some politicians but the phone-hacking scandal has brought the deal even more under the spotlight and yesterday Labour leader Ed Miliband urged the government to refer it to the Competition Commission.
Baroness Buscombe, chairwoman of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), which regulates most British newspapers and magazines, said it was “extraordinary” that Rebekah Brooks, News Corp chief executive and former News of the World editor, was leading the internal inquiry into the scandal at News International and said all executives at the company needed to examine their consciences. “The corporate culture was clearly there to mislead us. We were misled by commission or omission,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Prime minister David Cameron has promised a public inquiry after allegations that the newspaper listened in on voicemails sent to victims and relatives involved in some of the country's most notorious crimes. The scandal has raised fresh questions about the power Mr Murdoch wields over the British press, politicians - including Mr Cameron - and the police.
Rupert Murdoch has said he will stand by Ms Brooks, who once edited the paper and is a regular guest of Mr Cameron.
Also under fire is Andy Coulson, another link between Mr Cameron and the News of the World . Mr Coulson succeeded Ms Brooks as editor but, having quit over the first hacking case in 2007, went to work as Mr Cameron's spokesman. He resigned from the prime minister's office in January when police reopened inquiries.
