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MUMBAI:
Battered and bruised by the phone-hacking scandal, News Corp
chief Rupert Murdoch has denied reports that he is considering
spinning off British newspapers business News International
to protect his media empire from the scandal.
According
to reports in The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times,
executives at News Corp were looking into ways to split off
the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.
Among
the various options before the media conglomerate, putting
the News International titles into a trust is also being considered.
It is also weighing the option of selling the newspapers besides
a proposal to go into a joint venture with a media partner
was also on the table.
However,
the plans are still in their infancy, the reports said.
"News
Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses,
including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary
is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our
future," Murdoch Sr said in a statement.
The
development comes in the wake of British public prosecutor
charging former News International chief executive Rebekah
Brooks and five others including her husband Charles Brooks
for perverting the course of justice in the phone hacking
scandal.
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