Hacked Off: News UK’s appointment of Rebekah Brooks a ‘major misjudgement of the national mood’

Hacked Off, the campaign group representing press intrusion victims, has condemed News UK's appointment of Rebekah Brooks as chief executive.

In a statement, joint executive director Evan Harris (pictured) said: "This could only happen in a dynastic company where normal rules of corporate governance simply do not apply.

"Mrs Brooks’ successful defence at trial was that she was such an incompetent executive that she was unaware of industrial-scale criminal wrongdoing in intercepting voicemails and bribing public officials, and unaware of the vast conspiracy to cover it up, despite her admitting to destroying millions of emails and putting the company’s reputation before co-operation with the police. Her failure has so far cost the company £300 million, hundreds of jobs and then there is the £16m pay off she received while scores of her newspapers’ confidential sources have gone to jail.

"This is the equivalent of the return to post of ten Fred Goodwins with a Gerald Ratner thrown in for good measure.

"Brooks' reappointment is a major misjudgement of the national mood by a company still ethically out of control. It is no wonder the public don’t believe that the newspaper companies found guilty at Leveson when they say they have changed. It is also why reform of press ownership rules and regulation is inevitable."