Rebekah Brooks, the Chief Executive for Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. newspaper operations, resigned Friday amid the News Of The World phone hacking scandal.
Brooks, who headed News International, and was previously editor of the News Of The World, has denied she knew about the hacking. In her resignation letter, she wrote: “As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.”
“I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis,” she continued. “However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate. This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavors to fix the problems of the past.”
Brooks added: “As you can imagine recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive.”
Full text of the letter is here.
The New York Times reports that she will be replaced by Tom Mockridge, the head of News Corp’s Italian broadcaster Sky Italia.
Brooks is slated to appear before the British Parliament on Tuesday, along with Rupert and James Murdoch, to give evidence about reporters who worked for News Of The World who are accused of hacking into the phone records of murder victims and public officials.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by News Corp, Murdoch said the company would “investigate every charge of improper conduct.”
He said that he agreed to appear before Parliament to combat “some of the things that have been said in Parliament, some of which are total lies. We think it’s important to absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public……I felt that it’s best just to be as transparent as possible.”
Murdoch has also said that News International will apologize to Britain for the hacking, the AP reports.
Read more here.
Late Update: Reuters reports that Murdoch has written a personal apology that will run in British newspapers this weekend with the headline “We’re Sorry.”
“The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself,” Murdoch writes. “We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.”
“In the coming days, as we take further concrete steps to resolve these issues and make amends for the damage they have caused, you will hear more from us,” he adds.
