Rupert Murdoch has come in for scathing criticism over his ability to lead a company following the News of the World newspaper phone-hacking scandal investigation in the UK

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch must take responsibility for serious failings that caused Britain’s tabloid phone hacking scandal, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

In a report on the malpractice at Murdoch’s now closed News of The World newspaper, legislators accused Murdoch and his son James of overseeing a corporate culture that sought “to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing”.

Parliament’s cross-party Culture, Media and Sport Committee unanimously agreed that three key News International executives had misled Parliament by offering false accounts of their knowledge of the extent of phone hacking.

Rupert Murdoch has come in for scathing criticism over his ability to lead a company following the News of the World newspaper phone-hacking scandal investigation in the UK

The panel said the House of Commons would decide on the punishment to be meted out to the three executives - New York Daily News editor Colin Myler, who is an ex-News of The World editor; the British tabloid’s lawyer Tom Crone; and Les Hinton, former executive chairman of News International.

Members of the panel said 81-year-old Rupert Murdoch had insisted he was unaware that hacking was widespread at the News of The World. The legislators said if that was true, “he exhibited willful blindness to what was going on”.

“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company,” the report said.

The judgment on Murdoch implies that News Corp, which he heads, is not fit to control British Sky Broadcasting, in which the company has a controlling 39 per cent stake.

Broadcast regulator Ofcom said it “has a duty... to be satisfied that any person holding a license is, and remains, fit and proper to do so. Ofcom is continuing to assess the evidence”.