Rupert Murdoch and his son James are appearing before a British inquiry about press standards less than a year after being questioned at a parliamentary special committee over evidence of phone hacking at the defunct tabloid News of the World.
The widening hacking scandal rocked the media and police in a country where Murdoch owns many of the largest newspapers. James Murdoch is appearing first today and Rupert Murdoch is scheduled to appear Wednesday and Thursday morning if necessary, the Guardian reported.
According to Hugh Tomlinson of the Queen's Council, the now defunct News of the World allegedly hacked the phones of 4,791 people, from stars to crime victims, to get juicy stories -- all with the encouragement of top editors at the paper and aided by some in the police force.
Murdoch is also expected to be grilled over allegations of impropriety at his other newspapers.
In February 2012, five employees of British newspaper, The Sun, were arrested for allegededly making payments to public officials. Four former and current Sun journalists were held in January, the BBC reported.
The Leveson inquiry, initiated by British Prime Minister David Cameron following the phone-hacking scandal, has heard from more than 100 witnesses since evidence hearings began in November, the Guardian reported.
Rupert Murdoch made a rare apology in British newspapers last year before echoing the sentiment at a parliamentary hearing. The Murdochs appeared before a parliamentary committee last year for the first time, during which the elder Murdoch was attacked with a shaving cream pie.
The elder Murdoch is a man "who meets power with power" and is not going to leave News Corp. willingly, biographer Michael Wolff told Bloomberg News. Wolff's book, "The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch," was published in 2008.
The Murdoch name has been synonymous with News Corp. even before it was incorporated in 1979. Rupert Murdoch, the only son of Sir Keith Murdoch, took over his father's newspaper publishing business, News Limited, after the elder Murdoch passed away in 1952.
The Murdoch family and embattled News Corp. still own FOX News Channel, The Wall Street Journal, and publisher Harper Collins, among other assets.
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