Government joins calls to shelve BSkyB bid
Source: Agencies |
July 13, 2011, Wednesday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE British government yesterday joined in calls for Rupert Murdoch to shelve his ambition of taking full control of British Sky Broadcasting as his newspapers are embroiled in a spreading investigation of alleged phone hacking and bribery.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the government will vote with the opposition Labour Party today to support a motion calling for Murdoch to abandon the bid.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said this would be the simplest way to ensure that the bid isn't considered until criminal investigations are complete. A News Corp spokeswoman declined to comment on the government's announcement.
The decision capped a day in which former Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Murdoch's UK newspapers of employing criminals to obtain confidential information about his family and ordinary people, and police officers came under sharp criticism for failing to turn up evidence of some of the most serious spying allegations.
Brown's furious denunciation of the politically powerful News International papers came after it was revealed The Sun newspaper obtained confidential information in 2006 that Brown's infant son Fraser had cystic fibrosis.
They "really exploited people - I'm not talking so much about me here now, I'm talking about people who were at rock bottom," Brown told the BBC. Brown said he knew of no legitimate way The Sun could have found out about his son's illness, though the newspaper said it used legitimate means.
"They will have to explain themselves," he said.
Besides disrupting the media mogul's plans to take over highly profitable satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting, the widening allegations have slashed billions off the value of Murdoch's global conglomerate, News Corp. It has put his top editors in the UK under pressure and renewed anger at London's Metropolitan Police for dropping an earlier investigation into company practices.
At a tense House of Commons parliamentary committee hearing, one current and two former senior officials of London's Metropolitan Police said they regretted that an investigation of the News of the World in 2006 had not uncovered the extent of the alleged phone hacking, which allegedly spread to The Sun tabloid and the upmarket Sunday Times.
They blamed the News of the World and News International for not cooperating and pleaded that the force was preoccupied with terrorism investigations.
Resources were stretched and there weren't enough officers to fully staff 70 terrorist investigations running at the time, said Peter Clarke, former commander of the anti-terrorist branch.
The case yielded prison sentences for a reporter.
Prime Minister David Cameron's office said the government will vote with the opposition Labour Party today to support a motion calling for Murdoch to abandon the bid.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said this would be the simplest way to ensure that the bid isn't considered until criminal investigations are complete. A News Corp spokeswoman declined to comment on the government's announcement.
The decision capped a day in which former Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused Murdoch's UK newspapers of employing criminals to obtain confidential information about his family and ordinary people, and police officers came under sharp criticism for failing to turn up evidence of some of the most serious spying allegations.
Brown's furious denunciation of the politically powerful News International papers came after it was revealed The Sun newspaper obtained confidential information in 2006 that Brown's infant son Fraser had cystic fibrosis.
They "really exploited people - I'm not talking so much about me here now, I'm talking about people who were at rock bottom," Brown told the BBC. Brown said he knew of no legitimate way The Sun could have found out about his son's illness, though the newspaper said it used legitimate means.
"They will have to explain themselves," he said.
Besides disrupting the media mogul's plans to take over highly profitable satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting, the widening allegations have slashed billions off the value of Murdoch's global conglomerate, News Corp. It has put his top editors in the UK under pressure and renewed anger at London's Metropolitan Police for dropping an earlier investigation into company practices.
At a tense House of Commons parliamentary committee hearing, one current and two former senior officials of London's Metropolitan Police said they regretted that an investigation of the News of the World in 2006 had not uncovered the extent of the alleged phone hacking, which allegedly spread to The Sun tabloid and the upmarket Sunday Times.
They blamed the News of the World and News International for not cooperating and pleaded that the force was preoccupied with terrorism investigations.
Resources were stretched and there weren't enough officers to fully staff 70 terrorist investigations running at the time, said Peter Clarke, former commander of the anti-terrorist branch.
The case yielded prison sentences for a reporter.
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