Odishatv Bureau
London: Emerging from a stumbling testimony before British House of Commons, embattled media mogul Rupert Mudroch on Wednesday sought to allay his workforce telling them that News Corp would bounce back from the phone hacking scandal.

After telling the UK lawmakers that he was not to blame for the crisis, 80-year-old Murdoch in a message to his staff claimed, "I have the utmost confidence that we will emerge a stronger company."

With his USD 800 million company faced by threats of a meltdown over the mushrooming scandal, Murdoch admitted that "It would take time to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our stockholders and customers."

News Corp, which have been plugging the entire week, gained more than 5 per cent in the Australian trade and showed a similar bounce in New York, where they jump over 5.51 per cent.

Facing a severe grilling from the lawmakers yesterday, the media baron while apologising to the victims of the phone hacking insisted that he was not personally responsible for the crisis, which has engulfed British media politicians and police.

The scandal has already forced Britain`s two top cops to resign and brought Prime Minister David Cameron under sever political pressure.

The media mogul`s comments came ahead of the address by Cameron to the lawmakers where he will come under scrutiny over his links to Murdoch`s media empire. Murdoch in his testimony said that "it was not an excuse" with the workforce of over 53,000 people worldwide, he could not be blamed for failing to uncover the scandal.

But even after being in the dock in the Commons, the woes of Murdoch appear to be far from over, as the troubles of his company spread to Australia, where Prime Minister Julia Gillard warned on Wednesday that his company`s arm in the country faced some "hard questions".

Refusing to be drawn into commenting on Murdoch`s testimony, Gillard said, "I am not going to engage in a running commentary on testimony, but I do believe Australians...are looking at News Corp Ltd here to answer some hard questions."

Murdoch controls two third of Australia`s regional and metropolitan newspapers and also has a major stake in Sky News and Fox Sports. He is also aiming to run the Australia Network, the international public TV channel.

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