British PM grilled by lawmakers over phone-hacking scandal
English.news.cn 2011-07-21 13:40:55 FeedbackPrintRSS
Timeline of News Corp's Phone Hacking Scandal
Special Report: Phone hacking scandal crushing blow to "Murdoch's empire"
In this image taken from TV, showing Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron as he makes a statement on phone hacking inside the House of Commons, in London, Wednesday July 20, 2011. Cameron defended his former aide Andy Coulson, saying he believes people are innocent until proven guilty and that the phone hacking affair raised questions over the ethics and values of the police force. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
LONDON, July 20 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron was grilled by parliament members Wednesday about the phone-hacking scandal in an emergency parliament debate called by the opposition Labour Party.
The session, held just ahead of the three-week parliamentary recess, was meant to pressure on the prime minister, who had to cut short his Africa trip to personally deliver a response to the criticizers in the parliament over the scandal.
But even as Cameron did manage to dispel some public doubts during the debate, he was apparently unable to put a sudden end to all the hysteria over the phone-hacking scandal.
CAMERON FIGHTS BACK
The most frequent accusation against Cameron was his appointment of Andy Coulson, the ex-editor of the tabloid News of the World (NoW) that closed on July 10 over the phone-hacking scandal, as his communications chief and media spokesman.
During Wednesday's session, Cameron told the parliament's culture, media and sport committee that he regretted having hired Coulson and that he was very sorry about the furor it had caused.
He told the lawmakers that in hindsight "I would not have offered him the job, and I expect that he wouldn't have taken it."
Cameron took responsibility for hiring Coulson, but denied any fault regarding his decision as there was no evidence showing Coulson's link to the phone hackings when he was offered the job, and what Coulson did during his work at No. 10 Downing Street was indisputably appropriate.
Yet Labour Party leader Ed Miliband accused Cameron of making the wrong choice of sticking with Coulson after repeated warnings about Coulson's suitability for the job as Cameron's press spokesman.
The lawmakers also questioned Cameron on his close relationship with senior executives of News International, publisher of NoW, and media baron Rupert Murdoch, owner of News International's parent company News Corporation.
Cameron defended himself by saying that his Labour predecessors Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had maintained a closer relationship with the Murdoch empire than him, and tried to show initiative in urging changes in the country's tradition of the close relationship between politics and the press.
Besides these attacks on Cameron's personal judgement and behavior, the resignations of two high-ranking police officers have also added pressure to the Cameron administration. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Paul Stephenson and Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates stepped down several days ago due to hiring former NoW Deputy Editor Neil Wallis as a communications adviser and ill handling of the phone-hacking investigation.
