Cameron backed Murdoch's man
26 May 2012 6:56 AM GMT
British Prime Minister David Cameron appointed a minister to decide on Rupert Murdoch's bid for control of pay-TV giant BSkyB, despite knowing that the official backed the deal, an inquiry heard on Friday.
The revelation raises fresh questions about Cameron's relationship with Murdoch's News Corp, which was later forced to abandon the deal in July 2011 amid the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid.
An inquiry into press ethics set up in the wake of the hacking scandal heard that Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt privately wrote to Cameron in November 2010 to warn that blocking the bid would harm Britain's media sector.
One month later, Cameron gave Hunt the job of deciding on the bid, after the previous minister in charge of it, Business Secretary Vince Cable, was sacked for showing bias against Murdoch in a newspaper sting.
The memo came out during evidence from Hunt's former special adviser Adam Smith, who resigned on 25 April after it emerged that he had leaked confidential information to Frederic Michel, a News Corp lobbyist.
In the letter, Hunt told Cameron that Murdoch's son James was 'pretty furious' that Cable had referred the 7.8-billion pounds bid by US-based News Corp. to British media regulators. It urged Cameron 'not to cave in' to criticism by BSkyB competitors including the BBC.
'We must be very careful that any attempt to block it is done on genuine plurality grounds and not as a result of lobbying by competitors,' the Conservative minister wrote. He added: 'If we block it our media sector will suffer for years.'
Cameron has already faced calls to sack Hunt over the dealings that the minister's department had with News Corp. over BSkyB but he has refused to, saying that Hunt has the right to testify to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.
The revelation raises fresh questions about Cameron's relationship with Murdoch's News Corp, which was later forced to abandon the deal in July 2011 amid the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World tabloid.
An inquiry into press ethics set up in the wake of the hacking scandal heard that Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt privately wrote to Cameron in November 2010 to warn that blocking the bid would harm Britain's media sector.
One month later, Cameron gave Hunt the job of deciding on the bid, after the previous minister in charge of it, Business Secretary Vince Cable, was sacked for showing bias against Murdoch in a newspaper sting.
The memo came out during evidence from Hunt's former special adviser Adam Smith, who resigned on 25 April after it emerged that he had leaked confidential information to Frederic Michel, a News Corp lobbyist.
In the letter, Hunt told Cameron that Murdoch's son James was 'pretty furious' that Cable had referred the 7.8-billion pounds bid by US-based News Corp. to British media regulators. It urged Cameron 'not to cave in' to criticism by BSkyB competitors including the BBC.
'We must be very careful that any attempt to block it is done on genuine plurality grounds and not as a result of lobbying by competitors,' the Conservative minister wrote. He added: 'If we block it our media sector will suffer for years.'
Cameron has already faced calls to sack Hunt over the dealings that the minister's department had with News Corp. over BSkyB but he has refused to, saying that Hunt has the right to testify to the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics.
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