Australian Government To Hold Media Probe After UK Hacking
13 September 2011 - 1:56PM
Dow Jones News
Australia's government said Tuesday it will conduct an inquiry
into the country's media in the wake of a phone-hacking scandal
surrounding the U.K. operations of News Corp. (NWS).
Prime Minister Julia Gillard agreed to the inquiry amid intense
lobbying by the Greens party in Australia and the journalists
union, which in July called for a probe into media ownership.
Australia's newspaper and print media market is dominated by
News Corp.'s Australian unit News Ltd. and Fairfax Media Ltd.
(FXJ.AU). Spokespeople for News Ltd. in Sydney were unreachable for
comment. News Corp. is the owner of Dow Jones & Co., the
publisher of The Wall Street Journal and this newswire.
"There is going to be a media enquiry but the details are yet to
be announced," said a government spokesman.
Australia accounts for only a fraction of News Corp.'s annual
revenue but is the homeland of the controlling Murdoch family.
Rupert Murdoch is now a naturalized U.S. citizen.
The opposition in Canberra, led by Tony Abbott, immediately
rejected calls for the inquiry.
"This looks like a naked attempt to intimidate the media,"
Abbott told reporters Tuesday.
-By Enda Curran, Dow Jones Newswires; 61-2-8272-4687;
enda.curran@dowjones.com
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