Rupert Murdoch may have been guilty of “selective amnesia” in his evidence to the Leveson inquiry, it was suggested today.
Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, cast doubt on the News International proprietor’s failure to recall the scale of his contact with Prime Ministers, in particular with then premier Margaret Thatcher during the Eighties.
Mr Jay said Mr Murdoch had “no recollection” of a meeting at the Prime Minister’s country retreat, Chequers, in 1981 — at a time Mr Murdoch was trying to buy The Times — when he gave evidence to the Leveson inquiry into media standards last month.
Suggesting that the matter could have a bearing on Mr Murdoch’s “integrity”, Mr Jay said: “One does at least have to question whether this is selective amnesia. Mr Murdoch told us in evidence that he did not enjoy frequent encounters with Baroness Thatcher.
“The acquisition of The Times and its associated titles must have been one of the most important in his commercial life. This was a time of heightened emotion. Could an intimate lunch at Chequers really have been forgotten?”
The editor of the Independent on Sunday apologised to the inquiry for having seen a restricted transcript of the statement submitted by former Downing Street spin doctor Andy Coulson.
John Mullin said “good honest journalism” had secured sight of the document but admitted he had broken strict rules on accessing witness statements.
