Murdoch admits controlling Sun's political stance

Rupert Murdoch has told a parliamentary inquiry that he has “editorial control” over which party The Sun and News of the World back in a General Election and what line the papers take on Europe.

But the News Corporation chairman said he took a different approach with his other national newspapers in the UK, The Times and Sunday Times. While he often asks what the Times and its Sunday sister are doing, he never instructs them or interferes, he told the House of Lords Communications Committee.

Mr Murdoch’s comments came in evidence he gave behind closed doors on September 17 in New York, during the committee’s visit to the US as part of its inquiry into media ownership and the news.

According to a minute of the meeting published by the committee yesterday, Mr Murdoch said that Sky News – operated by BSkyB, which is 39% owned by a subsidiary of NewsCorp – could be more popular if it emulated his Fox News Channel in the US.

Outlining Mr Murdoch’s account of his approach to the editorial content of his British papers, the committee minute stated: “He distinguishes between The Times and The Sunday Times and The Sun and the News of the World (and makes the same distinction between the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal).

“For The Sun and News of the World he explained that he is a ’traditional proprietor’. He exercises editorial control on major issues – like which party to back in a General Election or policy on Europe.”

It added: “Mr Murdoch did not disguise the fact that he is hands-on both economically and editorially.

“He says that ’the law’ prevents him from instructing the editors of The Times and The Sunday Times. The independent board is there to make sure he cannot interfere and he never says ’Do this or that’ although he often asks ’What are you doing?’.

“He explained that he ’nominates’ the editors of these two papers but that the nominations are subject to approval of the independent board. His first appointment of an editor of The Times split the board but was not rejected.”

Although Fox News is widely considered to be more partisan in its coverage than UK news broadcasters, Mr Murdoch told the committee that a relaxation of impartiality rules would not be required in order for Sky News to become more similar to it.

The minute noted: “He believed that Sky News would be more popular if it were more like the Fox News Channel. Then it would be ’a proper alternative to the BBC’. One of the reasons that it is not a proper alternative to the BBC is that no broadcaster or journalist in the UK knows any different.

“Mr Murdoch stated that Sky News could become more like Fox without a change to the impartiality rules in the UK.

“For example, Sky had not yet made the presentational progress that Fox News had. He stated that the only reason that Sky News was not more like Fox News was that ’nobody at Sky listens to me’.”

Mr Murdoch voiced frustration at media ownership laws which prevented him moving into regional newspapers and led to an Ofcom investigation into his stake in ITV, said the minute.

It stated: “When asked about Britain, Mr Murdoch stated that the UK was ’anti-success’ – this had prevented him from expanding further (for example through the purchase of local evening papers).

“He was particularly concerned about the stance of the UK regulatory authorities. They kept investigating his purchases on the grounds of plurality but he had invested in plurality by keeping The Times alive and putting 200 extra channels on the air through Sky.

“The Government passed the Communications Act 2003 stating that anyone could buy a 20% stake in ITV, then he purchased a 17.9% stake and the regulatory authorities launched a huge investigation. Concern about his purchase was ’paranoia’. Another company could buy a larger portion and he would have no way of stopping them.

“He cannot understand why the UK Government is exercised about ownership levels. He believed that this concern is ’10 years out of date’ now that there are so many news outlets for people to choose from.”

The minute betrays a gloomy attitude on Mr Murdoch’s part towards the future of the print media in the face of a younger generation getting its information from the internet.

Summing up his evidence, the minute said: “Young people are not turning to physical papers for their news. This is particularly true in the US but applies in the UK too.

“Mr Murdoch has tried various ways to reverse this trend but with little success. His job therefore is to get the young to visit the websites of his papers.

“He wants his news providers to be platform neutral. Newspaper editors also need to recognise what stories are popular on the internet. To illustrate this he explained that Yahoo is the most-read news site and if you analyse what news stories are read most on Yahoo it is always ’soft’ news stories.”

In an interview to be broadcast today, Communications Committee chairman Lord Fowler told BBC Radio 4’s The Week In Westminster: “We obviously asked him (Rupert Murdoch) about the political influence that he exerted, and he said as far as the Times and Sunday Times were concerned that was one thing he couldn’t have influence on... but as far as the News of The World and The Sun was concerned, he was, to put it in his own words, ’a traditional proprietor’, and he would actually decide what the political line was, doubtless in consultation with the editor, but in the end it’s his decision.”

Lord Fowler said there was not currently a free market in media ownership, as a foreign national like US citizen Mr Murdoch can own media companies in Britain while a UK national cannot do the same in the US.

The former Cabinet minister said: “I think the rules in this country are eccentric. Rupert Murdoch – or perhaps not Rupert Murdoch, he’s got too much – a foreign owner can come into this country and, for example, take over ITV, but if we in the UK went to the US and tried to take over one of their companies we wouldn’t be able to do so.

“There aren’t reciprocal arrangements. I’m all in favour of a free market but this isn’t a free market.”

The minutes of Mr Murdoch’s evidence said he expected media ownership laws in the US to be scrapped.

“Mr Murdoch recognised that, as a US citizen, he was able to own significant media holdings in the UK but that US foreign ownership rules would prevent the situation being reversed,” said the minute.

“It is his belief that US foreign ownership limits will be abolished very soon as US companies want to buy into foreign markets and will need to be reciprocal.”