LONDON: Rupert Murdoch will appear before a high-profile media inquiry today to confront charges that he used his stable of British newspapers to influence politicians for the benefit of his business interests.
The 81-year-old mogul will testify before the Leveson inquiry a day after his son James appeared in a highly charged session that revealed how a government minister had advised Murdoch’s News Corp in its ultimately abortive bid to buy pay-TV group BSkyB last year.
Some are expecting Murdoch to come out fighting, having been on the back foot for almost a year over a newspaper phone hacking scandal.
‘He’s the master of the barbed quote, the one-liner,’ Neil Chenoweth, a veteran Australian investigative journalist who has written two books on Murdoch, told Reuters. ‘He just lets it drop, and his delivery makes it absolutely lethal.’
The British minister, media secretary Jeremy Hunt, briefed News Corp on the thinking of regulators and leaked confidential information, while at the same time acting for the government in deciding whether to approve the $12 billion deal.
Allegations that the government had sought to help Murdoch in his business dealings go to the heart of the issue in Britain, that Murdoch wields too much influence and that this resulted in a company culture that rode roughshod over rules and regulations.
The pressure on Hunt dominated the local news agenda on Wednesday, with newspaper front pages declaring that the Murdochs had declared revenge on the government. The front page of the left-leaning Guardian described Hunt as the ‘Minister for Murdoch’. News Corp said it had been required by law to produce the email documents that revealed the contact with Hunt. (Reuters)
