Elisabeth Murdoch has warned "profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster" in a wide-ranging speech to television executives.
She became the third member of her family - following father Rupert and brother James - to give the celebrated MacTaggart lecture at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.
She also warned of the threat to press freedom from "enemies within" - a remark which will be widely seen as a criticism of News International employees caught up in the phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the business.
Speaking at the annual industry get-together, she said News Corp was "currently asking itself some very significant and difficult questions about how some behaviours fell so short of its values".
She said "one of the biggest lessons" was the need for "a rigorous set of values based on an explicit statement of purpose".
After the speech, Scotland Tonight spoke to media commentator Steve Hewlett and deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman who were both in the audience.
Mr Hewlett said Ms Murdoch used her speech to make sure she was distinguished from her family.
He said: "She was saying I’m a Murdoch but I’m a different kind of Murdoch. I’m a Murdoch but I’m not one of them. She put herself forward as a Murdoch who is untainted by all that’s gone before."
However, Ms Harman said she was disappointed Ms Murdoch did not say what the next step for media regulation should be.
Ms Harman said: "What she didn’t go on to do was to say how you prevent that sort of thing from happening in the future."
Ms Murdoch touched on the subject, but said it was up to the Leveson Inquiry to come up with answers.
She said in her lecture: "Let's see what the Leveson Inquiry recommends but, when there has been such an unsettling dearth of integrity across so many of our institutions, it is very difficult to argue for the right outcome - which must be the fierce protection of a free Press and light-touch media regulation. Sadly, the greatest threats to our free society are too often from enemies within."
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