Murdoch pays millions to family of murdered school girl in hacking scandal

London: Rupert Murdoch’s embattled British newspaper group, News International, has agreed to pay the eye-watering sum of £2m to the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler in connection with the British phone hacking scandal. Murdoch will also personally make a £1m donation to six charities the family has selected. In a statement, the family said:

“Nothing that has been agreed will ever bring back Milly or undo the traumas of her disappearance and the horrendous murder trial earlier this year. The only way that a fitting tribute could be agreed was to ensure that a very substantial donation to charity was made in Milly’s memory. We hope that projects will be undertaken so that some good can come from this.”

News International now faces some 60 suits connected to the phone hacking, and a previous payout to the head of Scottish football union Gordon Taylor of £725,000 was one of the things that alerted journalists both at The Guardian and The New York Times that phone hacking might not have been an isolated practice as News International had previously claimed. [caption id=“attachment_114168” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Sally Dowler, Gemma Dowler and Bob Dowler walk from the One Aldwych Hotel after meeting with News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch on July 15, 2011 in London, England. Getty Images.”]  [/caption] The payouts might climb to hundreds of millions of pounds, but N_ews International and its parent company News Corporation_ are not shy about opening their cheque book to settle disputes. The New York Times showed that the company has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to settle disputes with competitors. The news came as police revealed to a parliamentary committee that they were aware that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked in 2002. This will add to the questions about how the police handled the hacking allegations. News International had up until recently claimed that phone hacking at the now defunct tabloid News of the World was limited to a rogue reporter. In successive investigations by Scotland Yard, police supported that view. That was before revelations in The Guardian earlier this year that royals, footballers and celebrities were the only victims of phone hacking but that Milly Dowler’s phone had been illegally accessed by private investigators working for News of the World. Since the Dowler hacking was revealed, an almost constant stream of other bombshells have shaken Murdoch’s media empire since. Murdoch’s British newspaper group first closed the News of the World. Several senior editors have resigned and been arrested, including Murdoch lieutenants Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton, and News Corporation was forced to abandon its bid for full control of British satellite broadcaster, BSkyB. Murdoch and his son James, who still is the CEO of BskyB, were summoned before Parliament, and it is likely they will be forced to return and answer additional questions after former lawyers for News International called James Murdoch’s testimony into question. Murdochs under pressure The news couldn’t have come for a worse time for Rupert Murdoch as he looked to settle challenges from shareholders during News Corporation’s annual general meeting. Activist shareholders are expected to challenge Murdoch family members and their allies when their board positions come up for a vote. British Labour MP Tom Watson is one of the few members of parliament who has worked to keep pressure on News Corp and its British subsidiary News International over the hacking allegations. Watson was a lonely voice before The Guardian revealed that the now shuttered Murdoch tabloid, the News of the World, had not only illegally listened to Milly Dowler’s voicemail but also deleted messages. The deleted messages gave police and the Dowler family hope that the girl was still alive. Watson announced a few days ago that he had bought shares in News Corporation so that he could try to have a chance to speak at the AGM. Watson told Bloomberg:

“I want to make sure the shareholders are fully informed about the things their company is doing in the UK. For an organisation that believes in freedom of speech, it would be pretty extraordinary if they tried to stop me being heard.”