A third of shareholders at News Corporation, News International's parent company, have lodged a protest vote against the re-election of Rupert Murdoch's sons James and Lachlan Murdoch to the board.
Nearly 35% voted against James Murdoch, the deputy chief operating officer, at the company's annual meeting, while 34% voted against Lachlan. Rupert Murdoch himself, the chairman, received 14% of "no" votes.
The level of protest is even higher than the vote suggests because the Murdoch family themselves control 40% of votes, and a further 7% is controlled by their long-time ally, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal. Taking these holdings into consideration, the majority of shareholders voted against the Murdoch brothers.
Many shareholders were already calling for change at the top of News Corp when the phone hacking scandal broke at the News of the World, their British Sunday tabloid, earlier this year. Critics felt that the scandal was not well-handled, and shareholders took this vote as a chance to show their lack of confidence in James Murdoch as Rupert Murdoch's successor.
Anne Simpson is a senior portfolio manager at the California Public Employees Retirement System (Calpers), which voted against James Murdoch. She told the BBC, "This really tells the board that investors are looking for change, they're looking for robust independence".
Despite the protest vote, all 15 nominees to the board were able to hang on to their posts.
James Murdoch has a second appearance in Parliament to face next month over phone-hacking.