Reacting to the news that Sky have reached an agreement to sell a majority stake to 21st Century Fox, the US media company owned by News Corp proprietor Rupert Murdoch, Hacked Off Joint Executive Director Dr Evan Harris said:

“This bid ought to be checked by OfCom, not only on competition grounds but on whether Rupert and James Murdoch continue to pass the “fit and proper person” test. Given recent revelations around email deletions that have emerged in court papers, and the conviction of the Murdoch “favourite” Mazher Mahmood, it is clear that that question can only be answered by the Leveson Phase 2 Inquiry which was established to get to the truth of precisely these matters.”“It is surely more than a coincidence that the Prime Minister’s secret meeting in New York with Rupert Murdoch was followed swiftly by her attempt to cancel the Leveson Phase 2 Inquiry into the News Corp hacking cover-up, and then this takeover bid.”

Notes

• Hacked Off is the campaign for a free and accountable press, and we work with the victims of press abuse to achieve those aims.

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