News Corporation launches review of anti-corruption controls in its publishing divisions
News Corporation is said to be taking a long, hard look at its internal procedure in a bid to improve compliance with bribery law in several of its global publishing divisions.
The Guardian reports that Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire has launched a review of anti-corruption controls in several of its publishing arms.
It says that Murdoch told News Corp staff in an internal memo yesterday ...”that the company recently launched the probe as a ‘forward-looking review’ to improve compliance with bribery laws.
According to the newspaper, Murdoch told staff that the review was now down to any suspicion of wrongdoing and would focus on specific locations, including London.
It explains that News International's broad internal anti-corruption review began officially in July last year, when Tom Mockridge replaced Rebekah Brooks as chief executive.
Murdoch is quoted as having said; "As you are all aware, our company has been under intense scrutiny in the United Kingdom.
“I assured parliament and the Leveson inquiry that we would move quickly and aggressively to redress wrongdoing, co-operate with law enforcement officials and strengthen our compliance and ethics programme company-wide.
“With the support of our board of directors, I am pleased to tell you that we have made progress on each of these important steps."
Murdoch added: "We have already strengthened and expanded our anti-bribery training programmes. To ensure the effectiveness of our entire compliance and ethics programme, we have recently initiated a review of anti-corruption controls in selected locations around the globe.
“The purpose of this review is to test our current internal controls and identify ways in which we can enhance them.
"Let me emphasise that the review is not based on any suspicion of wrongdoing by any particular business unit or its personnel. Rather, it is a forward-looking review based on our commitment to improve anti-corruption controls throughout the company."
Murdoch said the strengthening of News Corp's compliance procedures will take time and resources, but added that the cost of non-compliance are far more serious.