News Corporation today confirmed the formal establishment and extension of the mandate of the Management and Standards Committee (MSC) as an independent body outside of News International.

The MSC is also delighted to confirm the appointment of Lord Grabiner QC as its independent Chairman.

Lord Grabiner, 66, is a commercial lawyer who has more than 40 years of experience of high-profile litigation. In addition he is a well-known and widely-respected figure in the banking, finance, academic and business worlds.

The MSC will report directly to Joel Klein, Executive Vice President and News Corp Board director, who in turn will report to Viet Dinh, an independent director and Chairman of News Corp’s Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Both will update the News Corp Board of directors which has given the MSC its full support.

The extension of the MSC’s mandate will be confirmed in its Terms of Reference which will be published in due course.

Klein, who has previously held the position of Assistant Attorney General in the United States Department of Justice, said: "The extension of the MSC is the next step in dealing with the issues surrounding News International. It will co-operate fully with all authorities and also lay the foundation for future standards. It is therefore vitally important that it is independent and properly governed.

"We are very pleased that such an eminent person as Lord Grabiner has agreed to be the independent Chairman. He will bring his undoubted experience and intellect to this very important role. His appointment clearly demonstrates that we are serious about putting things right that have gone wrong in the past."

The MSC is authorised to co-operate fully with all relevant investigations and inquiries in the News of the World phone hacking case, police payments and all other related issues across News International, as well as conducting its own enquiries where appropriate.

It will also be responsible for proposing and overseeing the implementation of new compliance, ethics and governance procedures at News International.

William Lewis and Simon Greenberg will be formally seconded to the MSC from their current positions at News International as full-time executive members with immediate effect. All responsibilities from their previous roles as Group General Manager and Director of Corporate Affairs will be reassigned.

Jeff Palker, News Corp’s General Counsel for Europe and Asia, the other MSC’s executive member, will continue to be responsible for legal affairs throughout the region including direct oversight of the legal function at News International.

The MSC will be housed in a secure unit separate from the main News International office to ensure independence.

Notes to Editors:

Lord Grabiner biography:

Lord Grabiner, 66, is a commercial lawyer who for over 40 years has been involved in much of the highest profile commercial litigation that has been fought in London in addition to being a well known figure in the banking, finance, academic and business worlds. Lord Grabiner is highly experienced both as an advocate in the High Court and also an arbitrator in domestic and international arbitrations. He was chair of the Governors of The London School of Economics from 1998-2007, a member of the Bank of England Financial Services Law Committee from 2002-2005 as well as holding senior non-executive roles for two of the country's leading high street retailers, Next and Arcadia Group Ltd.

Viet Dinh biography:

Viet Dinh is Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School in Washington, DC. After law school, where he was a Class Marshal and an Olin Research Fellow in Law and Economics, Professor Dinh served as a law clerk to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

He was Associate Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Banking Committee for the Whitewater investigation and Special Counsel to U.S. Senator Pete V. Domenici for the impeachment trial of President Clinton. His representative writings include "Codetermination and Corporate Governance in a Multinational Business Enterprise" in the Journal of Corporation Law, "What is the Law in Law and Development?" in The Green Bag, and "Financial Sector Reform and Economic Development in Vietnam" in Law and Policy in International Business. Professor Dinh is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Joel Klein biography:

Joel Klein is CEO of News Corporation's newly formed Education Division and Executive Vice President, Office of the Chairman. After decades of leadership in private and public sectors, ranging from U.S. CEO of a global media company to Deputy White House Counsel to President Clinton, Mr. Klein is a senior adviser to Rupert Murdoch on a wide range of initiatives.

As New York City Chancellor for nearly a decade, Mr. Klein led a comprehensive reform strategy that brought coherence to the system and resulted in significant increases in student performance. He oversaw nearly 1,700 schools with 1.1 million students, 136,000 employees and a $22 billion operating budget. Formerly U.S. Chairman and CEO of Bertelsmann, Inc., Mr. Klein also served the Clinton administration in a number of roles, including Deputy White House Counsel. He joined the administration after 20 years of public and private legal work in Washington, D.C.

Mr. Klein received his BA from Columbia University, where he graduated magna cum laude/Phi Beta Kappa, and earned his JD from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude.