One protester wore a large Rupert Murdoch mask and protesters chanted 'jail Murdoch now' and held placards saying 'Murdoch, you are scum' and 'Murdoch: wanted for news crimes' outside London's Portcullis House.

Rupert Murdoch told the British parliament on Tuesday that giving evidence on the phone-hacking and corruption scandal that is engulfing his global media empire was "the most humble day of my life".

Sitting next to his son James, who opened the much-awaited proceedings in a packed committee room at Westminster by apologising to victims of voicemail hacking, the 80-year-old chief executive of News Corp interjected: "I would just like to say one sentence," he said. "This is the most humble day of my life."