LONDON – Media giant Rupert Murdoch today began a campaign of contrition and reform, apologizing to the family of a murdered British teenager whose voicemail allegedly was hacked by staffers of a now-defunct newspaper he owned.
“As the founder of the company, I was appalled when I found out what had happened,” Murdoch said after speaking with relatives of Milly Dowler, 13, who went missing and was later found dead. “Of course I apologized.”
Murdoch will offer a broader apology to those whose privacy may have been violated by journalists in an ad that is to appear in newspapers on Saturday.
Police in the United Kingdom have identified almost 4,000 potential targets of phone hacking. There were also allegations that News Corp. reporters may have bribed law enforcement officers.
The Dowler meeting, described as heartfelt, was held the same day Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of Murdoch’s News International, tendered her resignation.
Some of the claims Brooks faces relate to the News of the World’s alleged hacking, while she was editor, into Dowler’s mobile phone account.
Staffers were accused of intercepting messages in search of news. They then allegedly deleted messages to keep Dowler’s mailbox from filling up, giving her family and friends false hope that the schoolgirl was still alive.
The family’s attorney, Mark Lewis, said the family will seek “legal remedies” after their ordeal.
“They were suffering private grief,” Lewis said. “People were intruding into it.”
Murdoch appeared humble and sincere during the meeting, he added. (CNN)
