Murdochs to face Leveson Inquiry

Rupert Murdoch will give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry over two days next week.

The media tycoon will face questioning on Wednesday and Thursday about practices at his British newspapers in the light of the phone-hacking scandal that led to the News of the World's closure.

His son James, who stood down as News International executive chairman in February, will appear before the press standards inquiry on Tuesday.

Lord Justice Leveson will resume his hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London with evidence from a number of national newspaper proprietors next week.

On Monday he will hear from Aidan Barclay, chairman of Telegraph Media Group, which publishes the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph, and Evgeny Lebedev, chairman of the companies which own the Independent and London's Evening Standard.

The inquiry has already heard from Richard Desmond, owner of the Express and Daily Star titles, and is expected to take evidence from Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday owner Lord Rothermere in the coming weeks.

Rupert Murdoch, 81, is chief executive of global media giant News Corporation, which owns The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times, and has a 39% stake in satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

There will be limits on how deeply the Leveson Inquiry's lawyers can probe into the hacking scandal because of the continuing police investigations.

But Mr Murdoch is likely to be asked whether he was aware of allegations that the practice of illegally intercepting voicemails was not just confined to News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman, who was jailed in 2007 for listening to royal aides' phone messages.

He is also expected to face questioning about claims that he and his top executives were too close to British politicians. It will be the media mogul's highest profile public appearance since he gave evidence to the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee last July.