British Prime Minister David Cameron blasted media baron Rupert Murdoch's News International Wednesday as he launched a high-powered investigation into the press prompted by outrage at allegations of widespread illegal phone hacking and police bribery by the press.
The judge leading the inquiry will be able to summon witnesses including newspaper owners and make them testify in public, under oath, Cameron announced.
The aim is to "bring this ugly chapter to a close and ensure that nothing like it ever happens again," the prime minister said.
News International needs "root and branch change," Cameron said in the wake of public and political revulsion at the accusation that victims of phone hacking included a missing 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler, who was later found to have been murdered.
The investigation Cameron announced will look at whether News International or other newspaper groups broke the law, their relations with the police and politicians and press ethics and practices, Cameron said.
The prime minister also defended his decision to hire Andy Coulson, who had worked at the News of the World tabloid at the center of the unfolding scandal. Cameron, who hired Coulson as his spokesman, said Coulson assured him he had done nothing wrong.
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Subject: UK PM Cameron blasts Murdoch's News International 
Thu Aug 25, 2011 4:24 am
