Two former Victorian supreme court judges have been appointed to assess an internal review of News Corporation's Australian arm.
News Ltd announced last week that it would conduct a review of editorial spending over the past three years to confirm that payments made to third parties were for legitimate services.
The announcement of the review followed the News of the World hacking scandal in the UK.
News Ltd chairman John Hartigan said last week the practices exposed in the UK did not occur in the Australia operation.
The company agreed to an Australian Press Council suggestion that independent assessors be appointed to examine and comment on the proposed methods and scope of the review.
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Council chair Professor Julian Disney on Thursday announced the council would nominate the former judges - Frank Vincent and Bernard Teague - as the assessors.
"The independent assessors are being appointed to help provide public assurance that News Ltd has initiated and acted upon the review in an appropriate manner," Prof Disney said in a statement.
"They will not be responsible for the conduct of the review itself, of course, but will release details in the next two weeks or so of how they will proceed with their role."
Prof Disney said the judges would be independent of News Ltd and the Press Council.
News Ltd group editorial director Campbell Reid briefed Mr Vincent and Mr Teague on Wednesday.
"News Ltd welcomes the Press Council's role in this process and I am delighted people of such calibre have agreed to Prof Disney's request to take it on," he said.
Mr Vincent has conducted several official inquiries for successive Victorian governments, while Mr Teague chaired the royal commission in the recent Victorian bushfires.
