DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
A special committee formed to monitor editorial integrity and
independence at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires as
part of Dow Jones & Co.'s acquisition by News Corp. (NWSA) in
2007, issued a statement late Friday saying that nothing similar to
the alleged U.K. phone hacking activities has occurred at Dow
Jones.
The statement of the committee, which is composed of independent
journalism professionals, came a few hours after Les Hinton, Dow
Jones's chief executive officer, resigned. Hinton had been
executive chairman of News International, the U.K. unit responsible
for the News of the World newspaper at the center of the hacking
allegations.
Of the hacking scandal, the committee said, "Such matters are
deeply concerning to us, suggesting as they do a serious default of
basic journalistic standards in certain units of News Corp."
The committee added: "To date, nothing has come to our attention
that causes us to believe that today's resignation of Les Hinton as
publisher of The Wall Street Journal is [in] any way related to
activities at The Wall Street Journal or Dow Jones or that any of
the London offenses or anything like them have taken place at Dow
Jones. We will continue to monitor the situation closely."
The committee has regular quarterly meetings. The members, each
of whom is paid $100,000 a year by the company, are Thomas J. Bray,
former editorial page editor of the Detroit News; Louis Boccardi,
former chief executive of the Associated Press; Jack Fuller,
retired president of Tribune Publishing Co.; Nicholas Negroponte,
co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; and Susan M. Phillips, dean of the George Washington
University School of Business.
Here is the full text of the special committee's statement.
"In response to requests for comment, the Dow Jones Special
Committee, formed in 2007 to monitor journalistic and editorial
integrity and independence at The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones
Newswires, issued the following statement:
"The committee has been in conversations with Dow Jones &
Co. officials about the phone hacking and other allegations arising
from News Corp. British operations. Such matters are deeply
concerning to us, suggesting as they do a serious default of basic
journalistic standards in certain units of News Corp. To date,
nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that
today's resignation of Les Hinton as publisher of The Wall Street
Journal is any way related to activities at The Wall Street Journal
or Dow Jones or that any of the London offenses or anything like
them have taken place at Dow Jones. We will continue to monitor the
situation closely."