Australia to scrap ownership laws

AUSTRALIA is set to abolish media ownership rules which will allow newspaper publishers including Rupert Murdoch to buy television networks.

It will also pave the way for overseas investors to control print and broadcasting companies.

Proposals were released in Canberra yesterday by the Australian Government to undo a 19-year-old ban on media mergers that prevented Murdoch's News Corporation buying a television network and the Packer family from taking over newspaper publisher John Fairfax Holdings Ltd.