Piers Morgan defends 'witch-hunt victim' Rupert Murdoch

Former News of the World editor Piers Morgan has mounted a passionate defence of UK journalism and his former boss Rupert Murdoch.

On Monday's edition of Piers Morgan Tonight, Morgan said that Murdoch is the victim of "this huge witch-hunt going on to bring him down personally".

The America's Got Talent judge also said that he does not accept that the 80-year-old media mogul "would be party to illegal activity".

At 2.30pm UK time today, Murdoch and his son James will appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee to discuss the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, alongside former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks.

The three powerful media figures will be quizzed by MPs on how much they knew, approved or subsequently covered up widespread criminal activity at News International.

Morgan became the youngest national newspaper editor in more than 50 years when Murdoch appointed him to edit the News of the World in 1994, aged just 28. He was also later hired as editor of the Daily Mirror, a non-Murdoch paper.

A report published in The Daily Telegraph last week suggested that Morgan could be pulled into the phone hacking scandal after a political blogger linked him to the affair.

Paul Staines, who writes under the pseudonym Guido Fawkes, drew attention to comments in Morgan's memoir The Insider.

In a passage, Morgan discussed a "little trick" of entering a "standard four-digit code" that allowed "anyone" to call a number and "hear all your messages".

Staines claimed that the technique was used to generate a story in the Daily Mirror about Ulrika Jonsson having an affair with Sven Goran Eriksson, then the England football manager.

The Daily Mirror has always said it has never hacked phones. Discussing his time at the News of the World and the Daily Mirror, Morgan said last night: "For the record, I do not believe that any story that we published in either title was ever gained in an unlawful manner."

The hacking scandal spread across to the US last week after the FBI confirmed that it was investigating a report in the Daily Mirror claiming that journalists working for News International may have hacked the phones of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.