Conservative MP and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport Jeremy Hunt has said he’ll allow Murdoch to own all of bSkyb. We have just three days to flood the government’s public consultation with requests to stop the deal.
In the last consultation Hunt said 40,000 messages received from the public delayed the deal as his officials had to read each email carefully, fearing a legal challenge.
Let’s tell the government we don’t want his media empire to control our largest commercial broadcaster. Send a message now calling on Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron to refuse Murdoch’s bSkyb deal until there’s a full Competition Commission review and a full public inquiry into phone hacking. And tell your friends to do the same.
To bypass critics, Murdoch promised to spin off Sky News as an “independent” company. but media experts point out that this is a farce: News Corp will still pay Sky News’s bills, provide its satellite access, and be able to place loyalists on the board. This fake and only temporary independence is exactly the sort of “safeguard” that Murdoch has created to whitewash previous takeovers — and subsequently brushed aside like a cobweb.
Let’s tell Jeremy Hunt that Murdoch has too much power already — we don’t want him wholly owning britain’s largest commercial broadcaster any more than we want him owning our politicians!
Responsible media is a vital pillar in any democracy, informing voters and holding the government to account. Murdoch’s media is the opposite: it spreads hatred, war, and division, and turns politicians into puppets. This week is a major battle for our media freedom. Let’s stand up for our democracy. Send your message demanding the deal be stopped now!
Sources:
Jeremy Hunt ‘wrong not to refer NewsCorp bid for bSkyb’ (Telegraph)
Jeremy Hunt a Rupert Murdoch fan (Mirror)
News Corp-Sky deal: opponents urge MPs to lobby Jeremy Hunt (Guardian)
Letting Rupert Murdoch buy bSkyb creates a media superpower with worrying influence (Mirror)