More bad news from media mogul Murdoch

Not to be distracted by the ongoing phone-hacking scandals emanating from his now defunct News of the World tabloid, Rupert Murdoch has praised the appointment of former Colombian president (2002-10) Alvaro Uribe to the board of his News Corporation.

The fact that Uribe is accused of knowing about illegal wiretapping of journalists, judges and political opponents in Colombia when he was president is of little consequence to the media mogul.

In fact, Murdoch senior venerated Uribe as “a transformative figure who saved his country’s democratic institutions, revitalised its economy and restored the security of its people”.

However, according to Human Rights Watch, Uribe’s presidential tenure was “racked by scandals over extrajudicial killings by the army, a highly questioned paramilitary demobilisation process and abuses by the national intelligence service.”