LONDON – Prime Minister David Cameron, confident and unruffled, Thursday defended his ill-fated decision to make disgraced tabloid editor Andy Coulson his communications director even though Coulson had already been tarnished in the phone-hacking scandal.

He also defended the conduct of Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and the decision to put him in charge of judging Rupert Murdoch's controversial bid to take full control of the lucrative BSkyB broadcasting company. Hunt has been accused by critics of being too close to the mogul and his company, News Corp.

Text messages read before a U.K. media ethics inquiry also shed light on the cozy, supportive relationship Cameron enjoyed with senior Murdoch executives as he tried to wrest control of Britain's government from the Labour Party before the 2010 general election that brought him to power.