Media Tycoon Rupert Murdoch has been in London trying to prop up a crumbling empire. All parts of his UK media business have come under close scrutiny in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of his best-selling Sunday newspaper, the News of the World.

Now the storm has crossed the Atlantic, touching on Murdoch's maze of US interests with fresh allegations emerging in relation to reporting on 9/11. A former police officer claims that News of the World journalists offered payment for details about those killed in the World Trade Center attack nearly a decade ago.

In the UK and the US there are at least nine reporters facing formal corruption charges, along with a number of police officers. 

How significant is it that this issue is becoming an increasingly international rather than a localised British one?

Inside Story, with presenter Mike Hanna, discusses with guests: Ilyse Hogue, a senior advisor to Media Watch Dog and director of NewsCorp Watch; Robert Fisk, a foreign correspondent for British newspaper, The Independent; and Abdallah Schleifer, a professor of journalism and a senior fellow at the Center for Journalism, at the American University in Cairo.

This episode of Inside Story aired from Monday, July 11, 2011.