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Probe into News Corp senator deal claim
Source: Agencies |
November 24, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
AUSTRALIAN police say they are investigating a former senator's allegations that an executive of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation offered him favorable newspaper coverage and "a special relationship" in return for voting against legislation.
Former Senator Bill O'Chee recently made the allegations in a nine-page statement to police and they were published yesterday by Fairfax Media newspapers, rivals of Murdoch's News Corp and its subsidiary News Ltd in Australia.
News Ltd chairman and chief executive John Hartigan categorically denied allegations of improper conduct.
The Fairfax newspapers reported that a News Ltd executive offered O'Chee inducements during a lunch on June 13, 1998, to vote against his conservative government's legislation on the creation of digital TV in Australia. News Corp stood to profit from the legislation failing.
Australian Federal Police said yesterday that O'Chee's allegations had been under investigation since November 4.
Offering a senator a bribe or inducement to influence a vote is punishable by up to six months in prison.
Hartigan's statement said "the executive referred to in today's report, Malcolm Colless, has confirmed that no improper conversation took place during the 1998 lunch."
Hartigan said neither News Ltd nor Colless had been contacted by police.
The allegations are embarrassing for News Corp, whose ownership of 70 percent of Australia's newspapers has raised criticism from within government that Murdoch's empire has too much control over Australian media.
The government has opened an inquiry into potentially increasing newspaper regulation in Australia after News Corp closed its top-selling British tabloid News of the World in July over phone hacking allegations.
O'Chee, a former senator for Queensland state with a track record of voting against his National Party's wishes, claims after he rejected the alleged offer and backed the legislation it became almost impossible to get anything published in the Queensland newspapers which News Corp controlled.
He lost his Senate seat at elections four months after the lunch.
Former Senator Bill O'Chee recently made the allegations in a nine-page statement to police and they were published yesterday by Fairfax Media newspapers, rivals of Murdoch's News Corp and its subsidiary News Ltd in Australia.
News Ltd chairman and chief executive John Hartigan categorically denied allegations of improper conduct.
The Fairfax newspapers reported that a News Ltd executive offered O'Chee inducements during a lunch on June 13, 1998, to vote against his conservative government's legislation on the creation of digital TV in Australia. News Corp stood to profit from the legislation failing.
Australian Federal Police said yesterday that O'Chee's allegations had been under investigation since November 4.
Offering a senator a bribe or inducement to influence a vote is punishable by up to six months in prison.
Hartigan's statement said "the executive referred to in today's report, Malcolm Colless, has confirmed that no improper conversation took place during the 1998 lunch."
Hartigan said neither News Ltd nor Colless had been contacted by police.
The allegations are embarrassing for News Corp, whose ownership of 70 percent of Australia's newspapers has raised criticism from within government that Murdoch's empire has too much control over Australian media.
The government has opened an inquiry into potentially increasing newspaper regulation in Australia after News Corp closed its top-selling British tabloid News of the World in July over phone hacking allegations.
O'Chee, a former senator for Queensland state with a track record of voting against his National Party's wishes, claims after he rejected the alleged offer and backed the legislation it became almost impossible to get anything published in the Queensland newspapers which News Corp controlled.
He lost his Senate seat at elections four months after the lunch.
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