Rupert Murdoch's company said Friday it has agreed to pay $3.2 million to the family of a murdered schoolgirl whose phone was hacked by the tabloid News of the World.
News International and the family of Milly Dowler confirmed the settlement in a joint statement. It said Murdoch also will donate $1.6 million to charities chosen by the Dowler family, including youth and cancer research groups.
Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World in July after evidence emerged that its reporters had eavesdropped on the telephone voice mail messages of the 13-year-old who disappeared in 2002 and was later found murdered.
That touched off a storm of public outrage that rocked Murdoch's media empire and ricocheted through Britain's political, police and media establishments.
Murdoch's global News Corp. has expressed contrition, launched an internal inquiry and set aside 20 million pounds ($32 million) to compensate victims, who could number in their hundreds.
Still, the News Corp. CEO is under pressure. On Friday, he will face shareholders with small stakes in his company for the first time since the phone-hacking scandal broke in July.
British lawmaker Tom Watson, one of Murdoch's fiercest British critics, traveled to Los Angeles to attend the annual general meeting and has said he plans to use the event to reveal new details of what he claims are covert surveillance techniques by company employees.
