Church Of England Sells £1.9m Shares In News Corp

Citing a fear that it has failed to learn lessons from the phone-hacking scandal, the Church of England has sold all of its shares in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

The church first raised concerns about the News of the World's "reprehensible and unethical" conduct more than a year ago, and had been trying to force News Corp into improving its corporate governance.

However, the CofE on Tuesday said in a statement that it was "not satisfied that News Corporation had shown, or is likely in the immediate future to show, a commitment to implement necessary corporate governance reform."

The church's investment bodies, the Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board, announced the sale of their total £1.9m shareholdings, which represent 0.005% of News Corp's total publicly traded stock.

Andrew Brown, secretary of the Church Commissioners, said: "Last year's phone-hacking allegations raised some serious concerns amongst the church's investing bodies about our holding in News Corporation.

"Our decision to disinvest was not one taken lightly and follows a year of continuous dialogue with the company, during which the church's ethical investment advisory group (EIAG) put forward a number of recommendations around how corporate governance structures at News Corporation could be improved. However the EIAG does not feel that the company has brought about sufficient change and we have accepted its advice to disinvest."

(H)