British Parliament Wants to Lock Out Rupert Murdoch

Getty
Connor Simpson 549 Views Aug 28, 2011

Members of British Parliament have begun making moves to ensure Rupert Murdoch won't be able to reopen News Corp.'s bid for full ownership of BSkyB, The Guardian reports. Opposition Culture Secretary Ivan Lewis, of the Labour party, has begun rallying the different parties to support a change in law that would allow ministers to block a new bid from News Corp. from reopening their bid for BSkyB "in the public interest." Lewis will propose "a negative motion when parliament returns next week, which--if approved by all parties--could go ahead without a vote." The idea would be that Parliament could step in whenever they want to block possible media mergers. Quoth The Guardian, "ministers would be given the necessary powers to ask regulators to apply a wide-ranging public interest test. Ministers would be also be able to intervene at any stage in the process if new information came to light." It's a morality test for media companies, one that News Corp. would fail after the hacking scandal rocked Murdoch's empire. The Labour party made similar overtures "in the public interest" before News Corp. dropped their first BSkyB bid.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at connorbsimpson at gmail dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

Related Articles   More by Connor Simpson

Murdoch's BSkyB Bid Is Falling

U.K. Looking to Halt Murdoch's BSkyB Takeover

Everybody Is Involved in News Corp.'s Hacking Scandal

 

A Canadian Mayor Resigns...

Ed Snowden Is Planning His Next Move

Elsewhere on the Web

User Comments

Please type your comment and click Post. If you’re not already logged in you will be prompted to log in or register

  • The Atlantic Wire on Twitter
  • The Atlantic Wire RSS Feed
  • The Atlantic Wire iPhone App