Murdochs Resist Calls to Appear Before Parliament
By JOHN F. BURNS and ALAN COWELL

LONDON — A British parliamentary panel said Thursday that Rupert Murdoch and his son James had refused to testify next week about the phone hacking at their beleaguered British media outpost, while Rebekah Brooks, its chief executive, had agreed to appear, even as police arrested one more former employee.

But the panel said it would still demand that the two Murdochs — father and son — appear before the Commons Culture Select Committee, which “has made clear its view that all three should appear to account for the behavior of News International and for previous statements made to the committee in Parliament, now acknowledged to be false.”

“Accordingly the committee has this morning decided to summon Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch to appear before the Select committee in Parliament at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19, 2011,” the committee said.

It was not clear how the Parliamentary committee members could enforce their order since both Rupert and James Murdoch are American citizens. Neither was it clear how the two men would respond to the parliamentary order. Ms. Brooks is British and she said in a separate letter released by the committee to the Press Association news agency that, while she would appear before the panel next Tuesday, she might not be able to answer detailed questions.

The moves in Parliament coincided with an announcement by Scotland Yard that officers had arrested Neil Wallis, 60, a former editor of The News of the World tabloid at the heart of the phone hacking scandal. The crisis for Rupert Murdoch erupted early last week with news reports that The News of the World ordered the hacking of the voice mail of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old who had been abducted and was later found murdered. The Murdoch family ordered the closure of the 168-year-old Sunday newspaper last weekend.

For his part, Rupert Murdoch said he was prepared to appear before a separate inquiry, led by a judge, that was announced by Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday. “Having done this, I would be happy to discuss with you how best to give evidence to your committee,” Mr. Murdoch said in a letter released by the committee.

Sir George Young, the Leader of the House of Commons, said lawmakers could impose penalties — including imprisonment — if it ruled that people summoned to appear were deemed to be in contempt of Parliament. But such measures had “not been used for some time,” he said.

“If a witness fails to attend when summoned, the committee reports the matter to the House and it’s then for the House to decide what further action to take,” he told Parliament, referring to the lower House of Commons. “There hasn’t been a case of that kind for some considerable time. The House can order a witness to attend a committee. Apparently this hasn’t happened since 1920.”

Parliament’s summer recess is set to begin next Tuesday and lawmakers would not normally return until Sept. 5.

The developments came after a day of high drama on Wednesday when Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation stunned the British political establishment by acceding to demands to abandon — at least for now — a $12 billion bid that would, if approved, have enabled it to assume full control of British Sky Broadcasting, Britain’s leading satellite television operator.

Even after the withdrawal of the broadcasting bid, politicians maintained pressure on Thursday for Mr. Murdoch to appear before the parliamentary inquiry to answer what Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg called “big questions” about his companies’ fitness to own British media outlets, which still include The Times of London, The Sunday Times and the top-selling Sun tabloid.

Pressure seemed to be mounting in particular on Ms. Brooks, the chief executive of News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, who was editor of The News of the World at the time of the hacking. A separate law-suit was filed this week alleging that phone a second episode of hacking took place while she was editor of The News of the World, as she was when a private investigator working for the newspaper allegedly helped journalists hack into the phone of Milly Dowler. Ms. Brooks has issued an apology to the Dowler family but said she was on holiday when the resulting story ran, and knew nothing about the hacking.

The new lawsuit, involving Guy Pelly, a friend of Princes William and Harry, predates that incident. The claim, based on evidence seized from private investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s home, was filed by Mr. Pelly and alleges that his phone may have been hacked in early 2002. News International did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

So far, Mr. Murdoch has staunchly defended Ms. Brooks and vowed to stand by her in the face of calls for her resignation from the Prime Minister on down.

In a letter to the parliamentary panel released by the committee, Ms. Brooks said she “welcomed the opportunity” to give evidence. But she said that she might refuse to answer some questions to avoid prejudicing a criminal inquiry by the police into the phone-hacking scandal. “This may prevent me from addressing these matter is detail,” the letter said.

James Murdoch said that he was “fully prepared” to appear before the committee, but not next Tuesday — the day the panel has called him and his father to attend. He offered to appeared on August 10 or 11.

And, in a further sign that the affair, which began at the now defunct News of the World, was far from over, police announced on Thursday that a 60-year-old man had become the fourth person to be arrested in recent days in connection with their inquiries into illicit phone hacking and corrupt payments to police officers.

British news reports identified the man as Neil Wallis, a former executive editor of The News of the World. He was questioned by detectives probing illicit interceptions of cell phone traffic, the police said.

Mr. Wallis had been appointed a deputy editor of the newspaper in 2003 and served under Andy Coulson, a former editor and onetime senior aide to Prime Minister Cameron. Mr. Coulson was himself arrested and released on bail earlier this month.

Britain’s Press Association news agency said Mr. Wallis was the ninth person arrested in the scandal since January.

In a separate example of the potential political fall-out and recrimination spreading from the scandal, the cabinet secretary, Gus O’Donnell, on Thursday released a memo he sent to Gordon Brown after the former prime minister publicly accused him of blocking a judicial inquiry into phone hacking that could have exposed the extent of wrongdoing at The News of the World much earlier.

In February of last year, Mr. O’Donnell advised then Prime Minister Brown that, given that both the police and a parliamentary committee had examined the matter and the amount of time elapsed, “it is unlikely that an inquiry would reveal more information.” Moreover, “it would be challenging to specify the scope of the inquiry; arguably, the Committee’s findings would not justify a wide-ranging review; however, an inquiry targeted only at The News of the World could be deemed to be politically motivated.”

John F. Burns reported from London and Alan Cowell from Paris. Jo Becker contributed reporting from London.