Press watchdog: Rebekah Brooks leading phone-hacking inquiry is "extraordinary"
The chair of the Press Complaints Commission has blasted Rupert Murdoch's "extraordinary" decision to let News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks lead an internal investigation into the phone-hacking scandal.
Murdoch has backed Brooks to continue to lead the publishing company despite calls for her to stand down following a damning week of fresh phone-hacking allegations.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, PCC chair Peta Buscombe expressed dismay that Brooks would be responsible for heading up News International's own investigation.
She said: "I think it's extraordinary that Rupert Murdoch has asked Rebekah Brooks to lead their own internal inquiry into this... In any other business that would not be allowed to happen."
Buscombe added that she now believed the press watchdog had been "lied to" by News International when it carried out its own investigation into phone-hacking two years ago. "That's what it looks like now," she admitted.