Saudi backer voices support but calls for change

News Corp's biggest voting shareholder apart from the Murdoch family has demanded that the company improve corporate governance but continued to back its leadership under Rupert and James Murdoch.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed, whose Kingdom Holdings owns 7% of the voting shares, told CNN interviewer Piers Morgan that News Corp was already making changes. "All of this is in motion already," he said, without giving details.

The Prince praised the Murdochs for their "full integrity and honesty", adding that it was wrong to rush to judgment about whether they had made mistakes over phone-hacking.

Some US shareholders have called for Rupert Murdoch to relinquish one of his dual roles as chairman and chief executive of News Corp. There are also calls that News Corp should end its two-tier structure which means only those investors with Class B voting shares have power over decisions - despite Class A non-voting shares representing 70% of the company's value.

The Murdochs own 39% of the B shares even that it is worth only 12% of the company's value. The Prince is seen as influential and called for News International boss Rebekah Brooks to quit a day before she departed.