News International Chief Executive Rebekah Brooks resigned on Friday in the wake of the growing scandal over phone hacking by journalists at the group’s newspapers.
“I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis,” Brooks said in a statement.
“However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate. This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavors to fix the problems of the past.”
Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted,” she added.
Brooks, as well as News Corporation boss Rupert Murdoch and his son James, were summoned on Thursday to attend a parliamentary committee hearing on July 19 to give an account of the events surrounding News International.
The group has come under intense criticism by politicians in Britain this week after it emerged that some newspaper journalists employed by the group had written stories based on material hacked from phone messages, including those belonging to crime victims, celebrities and politicians.
The News of the World, the paper at the center of most of the allegations, closed last weekend after 168 years.
Brooks is a former editor of the paper, and another leading British tabloid, The Sun.
The paper carried out some of its most sensational hacking activities when she was editor, including breaking into the voice mail of murdered teenager Milly Dowler.
Two police enquiries are underway into the News International, one into phone hacking and one into the sale of information to journalists by police.
