Blair in hot seat at media inquiry
Source: Agencies |
May 29, 2012, Tuesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair testified yesterday that he never challenged the influential British press because doing so would have plunged his administration in a drawn-out and politically damaging fight.
Blair led Britain from 1997 to 2007, and his Labour Party government has been criticized by many, including some of his former colleagues, as having an unhealthy relationship with the country's press.
Blair, speaking under oath at an inquiry into media ethics, said the issue wasn't that he and Britain's journalistic elite were too cozy, but that he had to tread carefully where press barons were concerned.
"I took a strategic decision to manage these people, not confront them," he told Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who is leading the inquiry. "I didn't say that I feared them ... (but) had you decided to confront them, everything would have been pushed to the side.
"It would have been a huge battle with no guarantee of winning."
The inquiry was set up after revelations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, a scandal that has rocked Britain's establishment and raised questions about whether top politicians helped shield Murdoch, and media in general, from official scrutiny.
Blair's time in office was marked by unusually strong ties between the left-wing Labour Party and Murdoch's News Corp, a company with holdings that include the populist The Sun newspaper and the Fox News network. Blair became a godfather to one of Murdoch's children and his government has since been described by several colleagues as having been too close to the media mogul.
The former prime minister made no apologies for courting Murdoch, saying he was just one of several media tycoons who could make life difficult if they weren't happy with a position he was taking.
But he denied doing any kind of deal with Murdoch, "either express or implied."
Blair's government had an up-and-down relationship with many media organizations, basking in the glow of public adulation following his landslide 1997 victory and enduring increasingly caustic criticism following his deeply unpopular decision to invade Iraq alongside then-US President George W. Bush.
Blair led Britain from 1997 to 2007, and his Labour Party government has been criticized by many, including some of his former colleagues, as having an unhealthy relationship with the country's press.
Blair, speaking under oath at an inquiry into media ethics, said the issue wasn't that he and Britain's journalistic elite were too cozy, but that he had to tread carefully where press barons were concerned.
"I took a strategic decision to manage these people, not confront them," he told Lord Justice Brian Leveson, who is leading the inquiry. "I didn't say that I feared them ... (but) had you decided to confront them, everything would have been pushed to the side.
"It would have been a huge battle with no guarantee of winning."
The inquiry was set up after revelations of phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, a scandal that has rocked Britain's establishment and raised questions about whether top politicians helped shield Murdoch, and media in general, from official scrutiny.
Blair's time in office was marked by unusually strong ties between the left-wing Labour Party and Murdoch's News Corp, a company with holdings that include the populist The Sun newspaper and the Fox News network. Blair became a godfather to one of Murdoch's children and his government has since been described by several colleagues as having been too close to the media mogul.
The former prime minister made no apologies for courting Murdoch, saying he was just one of several media tycoons who could make life difficult if they weren't happy with a position he was taking.
But he denied doing any kind of deal with Murdoch, "either express or implied."
Blair's government had an up-and-down relationship with many media organizations, basking in the glow of public adulation following his landslide 1997 victory and enduring increasingly caustic criticism following his deeply unpopular decision to invade Iraq alongside then-US President George W. Bush.
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