The former Labour leader Ed Miliband is leading a campaign for the media regulator Ofcom to launch a full inquiry into Rupert Murdoch’s bid for ownership of the satellite broadcaster Sky.
In a letter to Sharon White, the chief executive of Ofcom, Miliband is one of several senior cross-party politicians to demand that the regulator carry out a “fit and proper person” test following 21st Century Fox’s bid for the 61% of Sky it does not already own.
Ofcom carried out a fit and proper person test of whether Sky should be allowed to hold a broadcast licence in 2012. Although it cleared the broadcaster, Murdoch’s son James was heavily criticised over his role as chairman of News International when the news of the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World broke.
The letter’s other signatories include Vince Cable, who was the business secretary when the Murdochs launched their first bid for the whole of Sky in 2011, the Conservative peer Lady Warsi, Lady O’Neill, a crossbencher, and Lord Falconer, a Labour peer and barrister.
In an interview, Miliband said that a full inquiry was needed given the Murdochs’ bid to increase their Sky shareholding and the fact that James Murdoch was now chief executive of Fox.
“We are calling for a new inquiry to deal with the issue of fitness and propriety given the ownership structure,” he said.
The letter to Ofcom quotes from the 2012 inquiry’s findings that during his time as chief executive and chairman of the Sun and Times owner News International, James Murdoch’s behaviour was “difficult to comprehend and ill-judged” and “fell short of the responsibility expected of him”. However, the report said that the concerns did not amount to a breach of the fit and proper person test, in part due to the Murdochs only holding a minority stake in Sky.
The letter argues that there has been a “material change in circumstances” due to James Murdoch’s increased involvement in Sky – where he is now chairman – and his role as boss of Fox. It also says that criminal convictions for journalists over phone hacking and ongoing civil cases against the parent company of the Sun and the News of the World newspapers are also on their own enough to justify a repeat of the Ofcom investigation.
The letter concludes by describing whether or not there is another inquiry as “a defining test of Ofcom and its capacity and strength as a regulator”.
Ofcom can chose when to carry out a fit and proper person test. It would be separate to an assessment of the proposed deal’s impact on media plurality, which could be triggered by the culture secretary, Karen Bradley.
An Ofcom spokesman confirmed the letter had been received and said it would be “considered carefully”.
Fox has been an investor in Sky for nearly 25 years and the proposed takeover would not affect the requirements to adhere to Ofcom’s rules. When it announced the deal, Fox said it would keep broadcasting Sky News and was committed to “maintaining its excellent record of compliance with the Ofcom Broadcasting Code”.
