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Sydney - News Corp president Chase Carey on Thursday slammed claims that the media giant promoted pirating of pay-TV rivals after a series of allegations in Britain and Australia.
The company has been hit by charges that it used hackers to undermine security systems used by On Digital in Britain and sabotaged its competitors Austar and Optus in Australia.
The latest allegations pile more pressure on Rupert Murdoch's empire, already under siege over a phone-hacking scandal.
The piracy claims relate to a unit within News Corp subsidiary News Datacom Systems, later known as NDS, which was sold to technology giant Cisco for $5bn this month.
Carey, in a statement, lashed out at the BBC whose flagship current affairs show Panorama on Monday made the claims in Britain, which were followed by lengthy allegations in the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday.
"The BBC's Panorama programme was a gross misrepresentation of NDS's role as a high quality and leading provider of technology and services to the pay-TV industry, as are many of the other press accounts that have piled on - if not exaggerated - the BBC's inaccurate claims," he said.
"Panorama presented manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations.
"News Corporation is proud to have worked with NDS and to have supported them in their aggressive fight against piracy and copyright infringement."
Chairperson Rupert Murdoch chipped in, tweeting: "Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with the lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back, which preparing."
The BBC accused NDS of leaking information from British broadcaster On Digital, a rival to News Corp's BSkyB, which could be used to create counterfeit smart cards, giving people free access to cable television.
On Digital collapsed in 2002.
NDS categorically rejected the claims and in a letter to the BBC, released on Thursday, the company's executive chairperson Abe Peled said the broadcaster "seriously misconstrued legitimate activities we undertake".
"The fact that you relied on manipulated email chains, without checking their authenticity with us prior to broadcast, demonstrates a flagrant disregard to the BBC's broadcasting code, misleading viewers and inciting widespread misreporting."
He said the programme had been "deeply damaging" to NDS and News Corp and demanded "you retract these allegations immediately".
The BBC expose was followed by an Australian Financial Review report claiming News Corp, through NDS, sabotaged its competitors in Australia by promoting high-tech piracy that damaged Austar and Optus.
It said this happened at a time when News Corp was moving to take control of the Australian pay-TV industry.
The newspaper, which belongs to rival media group Fairfax, said its evidence was unearthed during a four-year investigation based on 14 000 emails.
News Corp's Australian arm News Limited said the report was "full of factual inaccuracies, flawed references, fanciful conclusions and baseless accusations".
The Australian government said it had no plans to refer the corporate piracy claims to police, but suggested the newspaper do so if it has the evidence.
"If there is anyone who has in their possession material that they think raises concern about a criminal offence then they should refer it to the police," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said.
While police in Australia are yet to be contacted, News Limited reported that the Australian Federal Police had been assisting their British counterparts in relation to the phone-hacking scandal since July last year.
