MUMBAI: News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch is in the line of fire ahead of the company‘s 16 October annual general meeting with the Florida State Board of Administration (FSBA) voting to remove Murdoch and his sons James and Lachlan Murdoch from the News Corp board.

According to Daily Telegraph, FSBA with assets worth $150 billion under its control has backed calls for an independent chairman to be appointed, and voted for the abolition of News Corp?s dual-class share structure, which hands the Murdochs a disproportionate amount of power.

FSBA is the latest among the list of powerful pension funds to have called for Murdoch‘s head. The funds believe that Murdoch has compromised on the corporate governance.

Earlier, California Public Employees? Retirement System (Calpers) and the California State Teachers? Retirement System (Calstrs), the two largest pension funds in America with combined assets of nearly $400 billion, have voted him out. The Calpers and Calstrs had also called on News Corp to split the roles of chairman and chief executive.

However, Murdoch is unperturbed by these developments. ?Any shareholders with complaint should take profits and sell!? the unabashed Murdoch had posted on his Twitter account.

Murdoch is banking on arithmetics to sail through the current crisis. The Murdoch family holds 12 per cent but its dual class shareholding structure gives it 40 per cent of the voting power.

Add to that the backing of second largest investor Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, who holds seven per cent in the media conglomerate. The dual structure gives Prince Al-Waleed almost 20 per cent voting power.

With 60 per cent voting power in its kitty, the Murdoch family has the ability to push through their decisions and at the same time stall decisions that might not be in their interest.

And much to Murdoch‘s relief, ISS, the influential US shareholder advisory body, has thrown its weight behind Murdoch after calling for his removal from News Corp at the height of phone hacking scandal.

A year ago ISS wanted no less than 13 of the 15 directors to be rejected. However in an about turn, it has thrown its weight behind all the directors.

Talking of phone hacking, former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks was reportedly given a payout package worth about ?7 million pounds after stepping down following the phone hacking scandal.

MUMBAI: Delivering a speech at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Elisabeth Murdoch made a push for the media industry to embrace morality, while stressing that profit without purpose would be a recipe for disaster.

This contradicted her brother James Murdoch?s stand three years ago who at the same event had said that profit was the only guarantee of independence. "James was right that if you remove profit, then independence is massively challenged but I think that he left something out: The reason his statement sat so uncomfortably is that profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster," said Elisabeth Murdoch.

?As an industry?and indeed I would say as a global society?we have become trapped in our own rhetoric. We need to learn how to be comfortable with articulating purpose and reject the idea that money is the only effective measure of all things or that the free market is the only sorting mechanism.?

She also unlike her brother supported the BBC. James Murdoch had taken aim at the UK pubcaster for its guaranteed and growing income from the license fee paid by UK TV owners. But Elisabeth Murdoch said, "Let me put it on record that I am a current supporter of the BBC?s universal license fee".

Addressing the phone hacking issue which led to the closure of News Of the World, she said that she had told James to step back and that Rebekah Brooks should resign. "It was said within closed walls and Rebekah did resign."

?News Corp is a company that is currently asking itself some very significant and difficult questions about how some behaviours fell so far short of its values. Personally, I believe one of the biggest lessons of the past year has been the need for any organisation to discuss, affirm and institutionalise a rigorous set of values based on an explicit statement of purpose.?

She also said that she does not want to succeed her father at the company.

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.

MUMBAI: British public prosecutor has charged 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 that rocked Rupert Murdoch owned company in July last year.

Those charged include Cheryl Carter, Brooks? personal assistant; Mark Hanna, Head of Security at News International; Paul Edwards, Brooks? chauffeur who was employed by News International; Daryl Jorsling and a seventh suspect - both of whom provided security for Brooks supplied by News International.

The prosecutor has charged the accused with criminal offence for concealing material from officers of the Metropolitan Police Service and conspiring to remove seven boxes of material from the archive of News International.

Brooks and her husband criticised the decision saying it was "weak and unjust". Charles is a former racehorse trainer and school friend of Prime Minister David Cameron.

Senior prosecutor Alison Levitt concluded that in relation to all suspects, there is sufficient evidence for there to be a realistic prospect of conviction.

"I have concluded that a prosecution is required in the public interest in relation to each of the other six,? Levitt said in a statement.

The six accused are due to appear before London Court on a date to be determined.

Both Charles and Rebekah Brooks were arrested in March for engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and exercising improper influence in the pursuit of publishing stories at the now defunct News of the World news paper.
She had resigned as head of News International in July in the wake of her arrest for the phone hacking scandal.

Earlier, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the British Parliament, which was probing the phone hacking scandal at News International, had ruled that the News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch is ?unfit? to lead the company.

MUMBAI: While facing the parliamentary committee yesterday, Rupert Murdoch admitted that News of the World had been "caught with dirty hands", though he was not to blame for wrongdoing at the paper and "clearly" had been misled by his staff.

Murdoch started the session with an apology saying it was the "most humble day of my life".

Murdoch also hit out at his rivals for the failure to land the BskyB bid.

During the three-hour grilling by MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport committee, Murdoch stated: "A lot of people had different agendas I think in trying to build this hysteria. All our competitors in this country formally announced a consortium to try to stop us and they caught us with dirty hands and they got the story around."

Murdoch claimed that he was "absolutely shocked, appalled and ashamed" by the hacking of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler‘s phone.

But saying that he had no intention to resign, Murdoch refused to take responsibility for the scandal. "I do not accept ultimate responsibility. I hold responsible the people that I trusted to run it and the people they trusted. Because I feel people I trusted, I?m not saying who, let me down and behaved disgracefully. They betrayed the company and they betrayed me and it?s for them to pay."

Murdoch insisted he had no knowledge of the out-of-court settlements made by News International with chief executive of the Professional Footballers? Association Gordon Taylor and PR consultant Max Clifford ? despite them receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Murdoch also claimed that he didn?t know that former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks had admitted that journalists paid the police for information.

Labour MP Tom Watson, who has led the crusade against phone hacking, asked why he had not investigated these claims.

Murdoch said: "I didn?t know of it. This is not an excuse. Maybe it?s an explanation of my laxity. The News of the World is less than 1 per cent of this company; it employs 53,000 people around the world."

Both senior and junior Murdoch denied the company had tried to cover up on the phone-hacking crisis.

Murdoch junior added: "It is appalling to think that anyone associated with one of our papers would have done something like that."

Labour MP Tom Watson said it was "revealing in itself" that Rupert Murdoch did not know about the payments to hacking victims. The Murdochs began and ended their evidence session with an apology. James said: "I would just like to say how sorry we are to the victims of the illegal voicemail interceptions and to their families."

His father said: "I would just like to say one sentence?this is the most humble day of my life." He added: "James and I would like to say how sorry we are for what has happened. especially with regard to listening to the voicemail of victims of crime. At no time do I remember being as sickened as when I heard what the Dowler family had to endure ? nor do I recall being as angry as when I was told that the News of the World could have compounded their distress.

"Apologising cannot take back what has happened. Still, I want them to know the depth of my regret for the horrible invasions into their lives. I fully understand their ire. And I intend to work tirelessly to merit their forgiveness."

An alliance of media companies including the Telegraph group, the Guardian, Trinity Mirror ? the owners of the Daily Mirror ? and Associated Newspapers, has opposed Mr Murdoch?s takeover of the 61 per cent of BSkyB he does not already own.

Meanwhile, during the session Rupert Murdoch?s third wife Wendi Deng exhibited some of her boxing skills when her husband was attacked with a paper plate covered in shaving foam. She reacted quicker than anyone else including James. The man is a British comedian, popularly known as Johnie Marbles. He was arrested for suspicion of assault.