James Murdoch

James Murdoch

James Rupert Jacob Murdoch (born 13 December 1972) is the younger son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation. He is the former chairman and chief executive of News Corp., Europe and Asia, where he oversaw assets such as News International (British newspapers), publisher of The News of the World newspaper, SKY Italia (satellite television in Italy), Sky Deutschland, and STAR TV (satellite television in Asia).

He sits on the News Corporation board of directors and is a member of the office of the chairman. He was made Executive Chairman of News International in December 2007 He has since resigned from the post. He previously held a non-executive chair at British Sky Broadcasting, in which News Corporation has a controlling minority stake. In April 2012, he was forced to resign as chairman of BSkyB in the wake of the on-going phone-hacking scandal, in which he is implicated.

He was formerly an executive vice president of News Corporation, the controlling shareholder of BSkyB, and served on the boards of directors of News Datacom and of News Corporation.

In May 2012, a highly critical UK Parliamentary report said Murdoch had 'showed wilful ignorance of the extent of phone-hacking' and found him 'guilty of an astonishing lack of curiosity' over the issue. It went on to say that both Murdoch and his father, Rupert, 'should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility' for wrongdoing at The News of the World and News International.

Murdoch is a British citizen by birth and a naturalised U.S. citizen. He lost Australian citizenship when his father became a U.S. citizen, but he is eligible to reclaim Australian citizenship.