After a slowdown in late August, the News of the World phone hacking scandal picked up again on Tuesday with the testimony of two of the paper's former employees, both of whom reiterated their previous claim that James Murdoch was not truthful with Parliament in his July testimony.
Tom Crone, former legal counsel for the now-defunct tabloid, and Colin Myler, its final editor, said last month that Murdoch, head of News Corp.'s European and Asian operations, knew of the "For Neville" e-mail, which contained evidence of more widespread hacking at the tabloid.
Murdoch, in appearing before Parliament with his father, News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch, told Parliament he was unaware of such an e-mail.
Crone and Myler made their accusation official, adding to the speculation that Murdoch may be asked to appear again before Parliament, and further undermining his job security. Murdoch has faced calls to resign as head of British Sky Broacasting, a company News Corp. owns 39 percent of.
Also Read: James Murdoch 'Mistaken' in Testimony, Say Former NOTW Editor and Lawyer
The two former employees also added a few more logs to the News Corp. fire. For one, they said that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson wanted to rehire royal editor Clive Goodman, the first man arrested in connection with the scandal, after he was released from prison in 2007.
Coulson resigned from his job as editor in 2007 as the scandal first erupted and later served as the director of Communications for the UK Conservative Party and current prime minister David Cameron.
Crone also said that Les Hinton, former CEO of News Corp.'s British publishing subsidiary News International, authorized a payment of more than $400,000 to Goodman after he was released from prison.
While News Corp.'s top brass heard more bad news, it delivered some of its own to lower-level staffers. Reuters reported that more than 100 staffmembers at News International would lose their jobs over the course of the fiscal year.