ONE MORE THING:NEWS CORPORATION'S woes show no signs of abating.

Not only did the company report a net loss of $1.6 billion for the three months to the end of June – which included a $224 million charge related to “the costs of the ongoing investigations initiated upon the closure of the News of the World” – it also suffered the ignominious fate of being dumped by the Church of England.

The bastion of British society announced this week that it had sold its £1.9 million shareholding in the company as it was “not satisfied that News Corporation had shown, or is likely in the immediate future to show, a commitment to implement necessary corporate governance reform”.

Ouch.

It followed a year of dialogue between the church and the company, which will not be too happy at being mentioned alongside companies involved in “military products and services, pornography, alcoholic drinks, gambling, tobacco, human embryonic cloning and high interest rate lending” – all listed by the Church of England as companies in which it does not invest.

So how do our own national institutions fare?

A spokeswoman for the Church of Ireland confirmed that the church s not hold, and never held, News Corporation shares so its conscience is clear.

Matters become a little more murky if we turn to the National Pension Reserve Fund, the State body which manages the country’s investments.

Its 2011 annual report shows that the company held over €3 million worth of News Corporation shares at the end of the year.

Whatever the ethical dilemmas posed by the investment, it will certainly make a dent in terms of return.

At the height of the crisis, the phone hacking scandal knocked billions off the company’s value, though its shares have recovered somewhat since then.