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Outgoing Ofcom chief slams politicians and News Corp
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be the first to commentPosted by Barry White
Media power in Britain must not be allowed to fall into “too few hands”, Ed Richards the retiring head of Ofcom has warned—as he accused government representatives of showing favouritism to Rupert Murdoch’s companies, writes Ian Burrell in the Independent 29 December 2014.
The article continues that “in a rare interview, Richards said he was “surprised” by the informality, closeness and frequency of contact between executives and ministers during the failed bid by Murdoch’s News Corp for BSkyB in 2011. News Corp abandoned the deal when it emerged that journalists at Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid had hacked the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.”
Richards who stood down at the end of this December, told the Independent that communications between politicians’ offices and News Corp lobbyists released at the Leveson Inquiry in 2012 showed the process had not been even-handed. “What surprised everyone about it – not just me – was quite how close it was and the informality of it and the extent to which it featured certain companies a lot more than others. There was a widespread concern about the balance.”
During the attempted takeover, Ofcom resisted what Richards described as “intense pressure from the participants in that bid, particularly from the acquirer”. Its recommendation that the proposed deal be referred to the competition authorities was one of the defining moments of Richards’ eight-year tenure as Ofcom chief executive.
He said: “I’m very pro-market and I’m very pro-competition. But any country has to be very mindful of letting too much power in the media into too few hands, and I say that without reference to any individual or company.
“There’s always a danger if you have too concentrated a media because of the relationship that creates with the political system and public opinion.”
Richards, 49, is being succeeded by the former Treasury official Sharon White in March.
A report has been published by the House of Lords Select Committee on Communications who conducted an ‘exit interview’ with Ed Richards on 18 November 2104. Some of it makes interesting reading.
DATELINE: 30 January, 2015
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