Full statement from News International in reaction to the media select committee report on phone-hacking.
“The credibility of the Select Committee system relies on committee members exercising their powers with responsibility and fairness, and without bias or external influence.
‘Against these standards, this CMS Committee has consistently failed. Rather than work in the public interest, certain members of the Committee appear to have pursued a party-political agenda. They have worked in collusion with The Guardian, consistently leaking details of the Committee’s intentions and deliberations to that newspaper.
‘Indeed, the Committee has spent seven months – close to half of its time on this inquiry – on allegations made by The Guardian, despite its wide-ranging remit to examine issues of vital importance to the newspaper industry. This diversion has already delayed any serious reform which could have been implemented.
‘In all this time, the Committee has failed to come up with any new evidence to support The Guardian’s allegations.
‘Sadly, this has not stopped certain members of the Committee from resorting to innuendo, unwarranted inference and exaggeration. Moreover, the reaction of the Committee to its failure to find any new evidence has been to make claims of ‘collective amnesia”, deliberate obfuscation and concealment of the truth.
‘News International strongly rejects these claims.
‘News International believes that the Select Committee system has been damaged and materially diminished by this inquiry and that certain members of this CMS Committee have repeatedly violated the public trust.”
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