Elisabeth Murdoch pulls out of Edinburgh TV Festival

Elisabeth Murdoch has pulled out of speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival over fears that her talk would be dogged by questions about phone hacking at her father Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

She was thought to be close to signing up to give a speech at the annual convention about how she created the international TV production business, Shine Television.

However, Elisabeth has reportedly shelved the idea after the phone hacking controversy dominated the news media following revelations that her father's defunct News of the World newspaper may have hacked the mobile of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

It was felt that her talk would have been overshadowed by questions about the phone hacking allegations, including concerns over how her brother James, chairman of News of the World publisher News International, has dealt with the crisis.

Any effort to avoid discussing issues raised around the scandal may have run the risk of appearing as though she was ducking questions from media journalists in attendance, reports The Guardian.

A spokesperson for Shine Television said: "The organisers approached Elisabeth some time back with the idea of a session around 'How to Build a Global Production Company from the UK', which had been in discussion. This will now not go ahead at this year's festival but it is hoped can be revisited in subsequent ones."

Earlier this month, Elisabeth decided not to take a seat on the board of News Corporation, as had been planned following the £415m acquisition of Shine Television by the firm.

Back in July, it was also reported that she had said informally at a book launch that her brother James and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks had "f**ked the company" in the scandal. However, she later told friends that she could not recall saying those words.

Elisabeth is said to have earned around £129m from News Corp's purchase of Shine Television, producer of The Hour, MasterChef and Spooks.

However, the deal attracted anger from News Corp's shareholders, who submitted a lawsuit claiming that Rupert Murdoch's firm was guilty of "rampant nepotism" in the acquisition.

Last night the phone hacking scandal took another twist following the BBC's allegation that former News of the World editor Andy Coulson received severance payments from News International while he was employed as David Cameron's director of communications.