Murdochs to face investors at News Corp annual meeting

Many shareholders are not happy about Rupert Murdoch's dual role of chief executive and chairman

News Corporation holds its annual meeting later - its first since the phone-hacking scandal broke in the UK.

Some investors are calling for several directors - including Rupert Murdoch and his two sons - to step aside.
Labour MP Tom Watson, who played a prominent role in exposing the scale of phone hacking, has been given a seat at the Los Angeles meeting by investors.
He says he plans to make fresh allegations about malpractice by News Corp journalists.
The phone-hacking scandal forced News Corp to close the News of the World newspaper and abandon its bid to buy the 61% of broadcaster BSkyB it does not already own.
Shares in News Corp fell sharply after it emerged in July that the News of the World had hacked the voicemails of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
But they have since recovered and are now trading up about 6% over the past year.
Eroded trust At the annual meeting, one small shareholder, Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS), is tabling a resolution to separate the roles of chairman and chief executive.

Last Updated at 20 Oct 2011, 19:59 GMT

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Both positions are currently held by Rupert Murdoch. CBIS will call for the appointment of an independent chairman.

Julie Tanner, director of socially responsible investing at CBIS, told the BBC she expected "a lot of discontent" in the room.
"I think the problem is what's to come, and I think as a shareholder you have to be worried when you look at the company," she said.
"Right now the company is in the crosshairs of regulators, lawmakers [and] law enforcement, and it's really eroded public trust in the brand."
Meanwhile, Calpers, one of the world's biggest investors, has said it will vote against the re-election of the Murdoch family to the News Corp board.
'Unfair' voting system However the chances of either CBIS or Calpers succeeding are slim, because of the two-tier voting system at News Corp.
Only 30% of the shares have voting rights - and 40% of these are owned by the Murdoch family.
The remaining 70% of shares, known as A shares, are owned by investors unrelated to the Murdochs and have no voting rights.
Many shareholders, including the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, have expressed their unhappiness with the system.
"We have concerns about governance models that are flawed, and News Corp has one at the moment," said Councillor Ian Greenwood, chairman of the Fund Forum.
"It has a joint chairman and chief executive in Rupert Murdoch and it has a voting pattern that is not fair, where a group that owns 12% of the shares gets 40% of the votes.
"Both of those are unacceptable."