Miliband labels Murdoch influence ‘dangerous’
Ed Miliband has called for Rupert Murdoch’s empire to be broken up, saying he has “too much power over British life”.
The leader of the Labour party in an interview with The Observer outlined his plans for a cross-party agreement designed to reduce Rupert Murdoch’s market share in the UK.
“I think that we’ve got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 per cent of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News,” he said.
“I think it’s unhealthy because that amount of power in one person’s hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation.
“If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous.”
Although the News Corp empire today sees its first Sunday without the News of the World publication, it still owns The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and 39 per cent of BSkyB.
However, the Defence Secretary Liam Fox warned politicians against over-reacting and jumping on an anti-Murdoch bandwagon over the phone hacking scandal.
“I think politicians would be wise at the moment not to over-react, that there is a definite feeling of politicians wanting to, if you like, get their own back on some elements of the media.
“It’s time for calmness and for people to look at these issues, yes seriously, but in a proper timescale and without hysteria.”
Bernstein: phone hacking culture created by Murdoch
Veteran Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein tells Channel 4 News that Rupert Murdoch "intimidated journalism" and created a culture of manufactured controversy and sensationalism in his newsrooms.
Read more on the Carl Bernstein interview on Rupert Murdoch
But the Defence Secretary’s coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats have written to the media regulator Ofcom asking them to ensure whether the owners of the BSkyB licence are “fit and proper” given the allegations surrounding News Corp.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg warned Rupert Murdoch to take his appearance before the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Tuesday as an opportunity to be absolutely transparent:
He said: “He needs to come absolutely clean about what he knew, about what his senior executives knew and why this culture of industrial scale corruption, or so it is alleged, appeared to grow up without anyone further up the food chain taking any real responsibility for it.”
Yesterday, News International published a personal apology from Rupert Murdoch in all the national newspapers explaining how sorry he felt about the “serious wrongdoings” caused by the News of the World and promised further steps to resolve the issues.
The apology followed the loss of two of Murdoch’s key lieutenants Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton, who both resigned their posts on Friday.
