Media regulator digests Murdoch findings

THE Australian media regulator is resisting being drawn into an investigation of News Corp’s Australian interests, despite a committee of British MPs concluding its chief, Rupert Murdoch, was ”not a fit person” to run an international media company.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority, which regulates News’s 25 per cent stake in the pay TV company Foxtel, said it was ”aware of the report” by the committee investigating phone hacking in Britain, but it was not prepared to comment further until it had ”digested the report”.

However, it noted that the British media regulator Ofcom is considering the report as part of its separate inquiry into whether News Corp was a ”fit and proper” owner of a 39 per cent stake in the pay TV company BSkyB.

The House of Commons culture, media and sport committee accused Mr Murdoch on Tuesday of exhibiting ”wilful blindness” to practices in his company, which it said was guilty of ”huge failings of corporate governance”.

Australian media laws allow for the media regulator to challenge the suitability of a licensee by assessing if they present a ”significant risk” of a breach of the Broadcasting Act.

The regulator must take into account the track record in business of either the company or individual and whether they have displayed ”trust or candour” in their dealings.

But, say legal experts, despite the findings in Britain, the media regulator is not obliged to initiate a challenge to News Corporation’s interests in Australia, which extends to 70 per cent of newspaper sales, its stake in Foxtel and a 12 per cent stake in the 24-hour news service Sky News Australia.

ACMA has previously said it ”makes whatever inquiries [formal or informal] it judges appropriate”.

Martin Hirst, associate professor in journalism at Deakin University, said: ”There’s no obligation on them [ACMA] to act. I daresay that if they felt there was enough pressure from any decision by the British media regulator then they might reflect on that, and act.”

Australian politicians have shied away from calling for any investigation into the Foxtel licensee, which is ultimately held by News Corp’s Australian arm, News Limited, along with two other shareholders, Telstra and Consolidated Media Holdings.

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said: ”This report relates to specific allegations confined to the United Kingdom. There is no evidence of any behaviour of this type in Australia.”

The opposition communications spokesman, Malcolm Turnbull, refused to comment on the issue altogether.

But the Greens communications spokesman, Scott Ludlam, said the British inquiry underlined the need to reform Australia’s media ownership laws.

”There is evidence of rampant political abuse of a media platform here in Australia,” Senator Ludlam said. ”There is evidence of media platforms being used as political platforms.”

Earlier this week a panel of experts recommended future media regulation should contain a ”public interest” test that investigated whether a person posed a ”significant risk” to the operations of a media company.

News Limited declined to comment but in a statement News Corp admitted it has been too slow and defensive in dealing with the hacking scandal and that it had put in place measures to ensure it never happened again.

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