Phone Hacking Report: Colin Myler Stands By Evidence He Gave To MPs

Colin Myler 'Stands By' Evidence To Media Committee

Former News of the World editor Colin Myler said he "stands by" the evidence he gave MPs over phone hacking after being accused of misleading parliament.

His statement comes after MPs' unanimously found that the current editor of the New York Daily News misled parliament. Conservative MP Louise Mensch said it was significant and "attention" should be paid to it.

The Conservative MP for Corby told journalists during a press conference: "I would point out Mr Colin Myler is editor of the New York Daily News and we have just found that he has misled a select committee of parliament."

Mensch questioned if his current paper would take this into account.

The report accuses three former senior executives of News Corp's UK newspaper publishing arm News International - Les Hinton, Colin Myler, and Tom Crone - of misleading the committee during its inquiries into the scandal.

Former News International chairman Les Hinton has also denied the claims. He said in a statement that the Culture, Media and Sport Committee’s allegations that he misled Parliament and was complicit in a cover-up of the phone hacking scandal were “unfounded, unfair and erroneous”.

MPs write:

"In evidence, Tom Crone and Colin Myler gave repeated assurances that there was no evidence that any further News of the World employee, beyond Clive Goodman, had been involved in phone-hacking. This was not true and, as further evidence disclosed to us by the newspaper’s solicitors Farrer & Co now shows, they would have known this was untrue when they made those statements. Both Tom Crone and Colin Myler deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the Committee and, when asked to do, answered questions falsely."

Myler, the former editor of the News of the World, became editor of the New York Daily News in January 2012. He was editor of the News of the World from 2007-2011, when the paper was shut by Rupert Murdoch.

The culture committee's report also found Rupert Murdoch was "unfit" to run a global company and he turned a "blind eye" and exhibited "willful blindness."

News Corp said in a statement: "News Corporation is carefully reviewing the select committee's report and will respond shortly. The company fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologises to everyone whose privacy was invaded."

Myler's full statement: "While I respect the work that the Select Committee has carried out, I stand by the evidence that I gave the committee.

"I have always sought to be accurate and consistent in what I have said to the committee.

"The conclusions of the committee have, perhaps inevitably, been affected by the fragmented picture which has emerged from the various witnesses over successive appearances and by the constraints within which the committee had to conduct its procedure.

"These issues remain the subject of a police investigation and the Leveson judicial inquiry and I have every confidence that they will establish the truth in the fullness of time."

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