James Murdoch steps down from Sun and Times boards

James Murdoch has stepped down as a director of the parent companies of the Sun, the Times, and the Sunday Times.

The News International chairman, 38, stepped down from the boards of News Group Newspapers, publisher of the Sun and formerly the News of the World, and Times Newspapers Ltd, publisher of the Times and the Sunday Times, in September.

He remains chairman of the main holdings company, News International Ltd, and director of the editorial board of the Times. He is also director of British broadcasting company BSkyB, of which News International parent company News Corp owns a 39 per cent stake.

The change in Murdoch's role at News Corp is understood to reflect the appointment of Tom Mockridge – the new chief executive of News International, who has taken over his roles on the boards of NGN and TNL – and anticipate Murdoch spending more time in the US following his appointment as deputy chief operating officer of News Corp.

NGN, the legal entity responsible for the Sun and News of the World, is currently facing a large number of lawsuits from individuals who allege they were the victims of phone hacking.
Murdoch himself has been called to appear before MPs twice since the escalation of the phone-hacking scandal this year, once alongside his father.

He maintains that he was not shown evidence in 2008 that proved phone hacking was more widespread than the News of the World's royal correspondent Clive Goodman, disputing claims from the tabloid's former editor Colin Myler and former legal manager Tom Crone that he had been shown the evidence.

Both James and Rupert Murdoch, along with James' brother Lachlan – who is 40 – have faced calls from News Corp shareholders to take a step back from their roles in the company in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal.

James suffered a blow in confidence last month when more than a third of the company's shareholders voted against him being re-elected to the board of directors.

Both James and Lachlan were censured in the vote, with 35 per cent of shareholders voting against James and 34 per cent against Lachlan.

Discounting the 40 per cent of shares controlled by Rupert Murdoch, 67 per cent of the independent votes went against James and 64 per cent against Lachlan.

• Follow this link to see the inquiry schedule for this week.

• Follow this link to see Journalism.co.uk's full Leveson inquiry coverage

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