London (CNN) -- Prime Minister David Cameron will address the phone-hacking scandal rattling the foundations of the British press, police and political establishments in a special session of Parliament Wednesday, hours after lawmakers slammed Rupert Murdoch's News International and the police.
Parliament's Home Affairs committee "deplored" obstruction by News International when lawmakers first tried to probe accusations of illegal eavesdropping by journalists working for Murdoch, and criticized police for failing to investigate the case properly.
The committee's report does not mention either Murdoch by name.
Australia's Prime Minister Julia Gillard also weighed in on the controversy Wednesday, saying the Australian arm of Murdoch's empire, News Ltd., had "hard questions" to answer.
"When there has been a major discussion overseas, when people have seen telephones hacked into, when people have seen individuals grieving have to deal with all of this, then I do think that causes us to ask some questions here in our country," Gillard said.
Rupert Murdoch e-mailed employees of News Corp., the parent company of News International, on Tuesday to say he was "shocked and appalled" by the allegations of phone hacking and police bribery by journalists working for his News of the World.
"I have never tolerated the kind of behaviour that has been described over these past few weeks. It has no place at News Corporation," he wrote hours after testifying with his son James before British lawmakers looking into the scandal
Both Murdochs said they are not to blame in a burgeoning scandal that has raised questions of how much top executives knew about illegal phone hacking and when.
Testy exchanges peppered the nearly three hours of questioning by members of a parliamentary committee who pressed the father and son for answers on who may have authorized or known of reporters' hacking of voice mails.
Asked by one lawmaker, "Do you accept that ultimately you are responsible for this whole fiasco?" Rupert Murdoch simply responded: "No."
After declaring it was "the most humble day of my life," the elder Murdoch let James Murdoch do most of the talking. When called upon, Rupert Murdoch indicated he knew little of the day-to-day details of his holdings and that he might hear more from a News of the World editor about extra soccer coverage than a payout to a phone-hacking victim.
Asked whether he had considered resigning, Rupert Murdoch replied: "No, because I feel that the people I trusted, I don't know at what level, let me down and I think they behaved disgracefully, betrayed the company and me, and it's for them to pay."
"I think that frankly I'm the best person to clear this up," he added.
The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee also heard from former top executive Rebekah Brooks, who testified she never paid a police officer or sanctioned a payment to the police. Journalists at the now-defunct News of the World are accused of bribing police to get private details about people, including members of the royal family.
Lawmakers seated at a horseshoe-shaped table quizzed the Murdochs about out-of-court settlements and employee actions.
But it was an unexpected moment, well into the testimony, that was destined for video highlights.
A protester tossed a plate of light-blue shaving cream at Rupert Murdoch, 80, prompting a brief recess.
Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, who was seated behind him, jumped to her feet and smashed the attacker's hand with her own.
Britain is in an uproar over the scandal, which could have global implications. It began with the phone-hacking claims involving reporters from News of the World -- which led its parent company, News Corp., to shut down the paper -- and quickly broadened into allegations that journalists had paid police for confidential information.
While Rupert Murdoch said he could not know in any detail the actions of his 53,000 employees, committee member Tom Watson reminded the elder Murdoch several times he is in charge of corporate governance -- the culture and policies of a business entity.
The elder Murdoch told the Parliament committee he has seen "no evidence" that victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States were victims of phone hacking by his employees, and he does not believe it happened.
The FBI is investigating News Corp. over the claim, made by a British newspaper.
In his testimony, James Murdoch said he had "no knowledge" that Brooks and Les Hinton, another former News Corp. senior official -- both of whom have resigned in the past week -- knew of the extent of phone hacking at the News of the World.
Explaining why he had previously given inaccurate statements to the committee, James Murdoch said senior News Corp. officials had learned about the extent of phone hacking by their employees as a result of civil lawsuits against News of the World in late 2010.
He said those in charge were determined "both to put things right, make sure these things don't happen again, and to be the company that I know that we have always aspired to be."
Brooks, the former editor of News of the World who went on to become chief executive of its parent company, News International, said News International acted "quickly and decisively" to investigate internally when the extent of the phone hacking became clear and the company had passed the new information to the police.
Brooks said she was aware that News of the World used private detectives, and believed every national newspaper in the UK did the same. But she said she has never met Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator accused of carrying out mass phone hacking for her paper and did not hear his name until 2006.
Brooks was editor of the best-selling Sunday tabloid at the time of some of the most serious allegations against it.
She resigned July 15 over the scandal and was arrested and questioned by police two days later. Her lawyer, Steven Parkinson, said Monday his client is not guilty of any crime.
Prime Minister Cameron has faced strong criticism in recent days over his decision to hire Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor who resigned as Cameron's spokesman after his newspaper staff were jailed for hacking voice mails. Coulson, who resigned his government post in January, has since been arrested.
Both Brooks and Coulson, who are free on bail, deny knowledge of wrongdoing.
Murdoch's News Corp. encompasses Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and Harper Collins publishers in the United States. News International -- a British subsidiary of News Corp. -- owns the Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times in Britain.
