But the executive—Jon Chapman, the former head of legal affairs at News Corp.'s U..K newspaper unit—told a parliamentary hearing that he thought the News Corp. chairman and chief executive hadn't been properly briefed on the issue.
Mr. Chapman spoke to the Culture, Media and Sport committee Tuesday alongside News International's
former head of human resources, Daniel Cloke. Also appearing before the committee Tuesday morning are the tabloid's former editor and former top lawyer—Colin Myler and Tom Crone, respectively—who have disputed recent testimony to the committee by James Murdoch, News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer.
The politicians are focused on whether News Corp. executives have misled it in the past. In particular, the panel is focused on when executives became aware that voice-mail interceptions at the recently closed News of the World went beyond Clive Goodman, the former royals correspondent, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator on the paper's payroll. Both went to jail in 2007 after pleading guilty to illegally intercepting.
Another key area of interest: how thoroughly the company investigated alleged wrongdoing in the wake of those initial revelations of phone hacking at the paper. Depending on Tuesday's evidence, committee members have said they may decide to recall other former or current company executives.
News Corp. has said that its previous belief that phone hacking was limited to one reporter was based in large part on the Harbottle law firm's review of emails—stemming from an unfair-dismissal claim—that was overseen by Messrs. Chapman and Cloke. Mr. Chapman, in recent written evidence to the committee, said that the review couldn't be categorized as the type of wider internal investigation that was presented by Mr. Murdoch and his son James.
Messrs. Crone and Myler have said that in 2008 they made Mr. Murdoch aware of a crucial email that suggested that others at the paper beyond Mr. Goodman were aware of phone hacking. The email, sent in 2005 by a junior reporter to Mr. Mulcaire, contained a transcript of 35 hacked voice-mail messages tied to a former U.K. soccer-union official Gordon Taylor. At the top, reporter Ross Hall had written "for Neville," a reference to the tabloid's then chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck.
The email was a key piece of an evidence in a lawsuit brought by Mr. Taylor against the News of the World, which News International settled in 2008 with a payment of roughly £700,000 ($1.1 million). Mr. Murdoch told the parliamentary committee in July that he hadn't been shown that email in spring 2008, despite having authorized the settlement.
News Corp. also is facing law-enforcement probes in the U.K. and the U.S. into phone-hacking and other allegations of wrongdoing at the former tabloid. On Friday, London's Metropolitan police arrested a 30-year-old man on suspicion of intercepting voicemails and attempting to pervert the course of justice. A person familiar with the matter identified the man as Mr. Hall, the junior journalist who had sent the "for Neville" email. He is also the nephew of Phil Hall, News of the World editor from 1995 through 2000.
Also among the 16 people that the Metropolitan Police have arrested this year are Mr. Thurlbeck and two of the paper's former top editors, a long-serving managing director and other senior staff. None has been charged and the case against one of those individuals has been dropped.
Separately, in a memo to employees Tuesday morning, News International Chief Executive Tom Mockridge said the unit plans to reduce its staff by about 110 positions by the end of the financial year, out of a total of about 3,000.
"This has been an extremely testing time for everyone at News International," Mr. Mockridge said in the memo.
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