Rebekah Brooks resigns from News International
News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has resigned from her role, following the phone hacking scandal, in a bid to save the company’s now tarnished reputation.
News Corp has announced that Sky Italia chief executive Tom Mockridge will replace Brooks with immediate effect.
Brooks had previously tried on two occasions to resign from the company, as the crisis at News International mounted, but her resignations were not accepted by the company’s owner Rupert Murdoch and chairman James Murdoch.
She says: “The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.”
Brooks says she will now concentrate on “correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive”.
She will appear before a parliamentary committee next week, alongside Rupert and James Murdoch, to be quizzed by MPs about the alleged illegal journalistic practices that took place at News International.
Prior to joining Sky Italia, Mockridge was chief executive of European television at News Corporation and chief executive of New Zealand company, Independent Newspapers.