LONDON (Reuters) – Sky News, part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, said on Thursday it had hacked into emails on two occasions but insisted it had acted in the public interest, as the channel’s parent company faces an investigation by British regulators.

The potentially damaging admission came two days after Murdoch’s son James quit as chairman of Sky News’s parent BSkyB in an attempt to limit the spread of a phone-hacking scandal that has already forced the closure of one of Murdoch’s main British newspapers.

April 4 (Reuters) – James Murdoch’s exit from the
chairmanship of BSkyB moves his father Rupert into the
firing line in Britain, just as an inquiry into a phone-hacking
scandal turns its focus on his peculiar influence in the
country.

Rupert Murdoch, News Corp’s chief executive, is due
to appear this month before a judge-led inquiry into ethics and
standards in the British press, which will be turning its
attention to newspaper proprietors and politicians.

LONDON (Reuters) – James Murdoch’s belated acknowledgment that he had become a liability to satellite broadcaster BSkyB was a rare admission of defeat by the combative 39-year-old executive known for his self-belief and decisiveness.

Murdoch resigned on Tuesday as chairman of BSkyB, saying he did not want to damage the company any further by the intense scrutiny surrounding his role in a phone-hacking scandal that has convulsed his father’s media empire.

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) – James Murdoch resigned as
chairman of BSkyB on Tuesday to prevent his links to a
tabloid phone-hacking scandal from undermining the pay TV group,
which has so far escaped the worst of the damage convulsing its
controlling shareholder News Corp.

In a bitter blow to Murdoch, until last year seen as heir
apparent to his father Rupert’s media empire, James said he
would step down from the British pay-TV company where he made
his name as a talented executive in his own right.

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) – James Murdoch resigned as
chairman of BSkyB on Tuesday to prevent his links to a
phone-hacking scandal that has convulsed his father Rupert’s
media empire undermining the pay TV group, whose broadcast
licence is under scrutiny in Britain.

“I am aware that my role as Chairman could become a
lightning rod for BSkyB and I believe that my resignation will
help to ensure that there is no false conflation with events at
a separate organisation,” Murdoch said.

LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) – James Murdoch, under fire over
his handling of a phone hacking scandal that has convulsed his
father Rupert’s media empire, is to step down as chairman of
pay-TV group BSkyB, its news channel reported on
Tuesday.

The report said Murdoch would quit after a board meeting
later in the day. Neither BSkyB nor News Corp, where
Murdoch is deputy chief operating officer, would comment.

LONDON (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch on Thursday declared war against “enemies” who have accused his pay-TV operation of sabotaging its rivals, denouncing them as “toffs and right wingers” stuck in the last century.

Reports by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Financial Review newspaper this week said that News Corp’s pay-TV smartcard security unit, NDS, had promoted piracy attacks on rivals, including in the United States.

LONDON, March 29 (Reuters) – An angry Rupert Murdoch on
Thursday declared war against “enemies” who have accused his
pay-TV operation of sabotaging its rivals, denouncing them as
“toffs and right wingers” stuck in the last century.

Separate reports by the British Broadcasting Corporation and
the Australian Financial Review newspaper this week said that
News Corp’s pay-TV smartcard security unit, NDS, had promoted
piracy attacks on rivals, including in the United States.

LONDON (Reuters) – An angry Rupert Murdoch on Thursday declared war against “enemies” who have accused his pay-TV operation of sabotaging its rivals, denouncing them as “toffs and right wingers” stuck in the last century.

Separate reports by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the Australian Financial Review newspaper this week said that News Corp’s pay-TV smartcard security unit, NDS, had promoted piracy attacks on rivals, including in the United States.

LONDON/MELBOURNE, March 28 (Reuters) – Pressure is building
in Britain and Australia for fresh probes into Rupert Murdoch’s
News Corp, already under siege over phone-hacking
claims, after allegations that it ran a secret unit that
promoted pirating of pay-TV rivals.

The Australian Financial Review on Wednesday alleged that
News Corp had used a special unit, Operational Security, set up
in the mid-1990s, to sabotage its competitors, reinforcing
claims in a BBC Panorama documentary aired earlier this week.