Theresa May has been challenged by a former chairman of the BBC to stand apart from her predecessors by resisting Rupert Murdoch’s £11.2bn takeover of satellite broadcaster Sky.
Sir Michael Lyons said that the government should apply the “fit and proper person” test to the proposed deal, which would see Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox film and television group take full control of the broadcaster, of which it already owns 39%.
The media tycoon was forced to abandon an attempt to take full control in 2011 amid a public outcry over his businesses’ journalistic practices in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal. The cross-party culture, media and sport select committee also concluded at the time that he was “not a fit person” to exercise stewardship of a major international company.
Lyons chaired the BBC Trust from 2007 to 2011, during which he engaged in a war of words with James Murdoch over media ownership. He told the Observer: “This is an interesting moment for Mrs May. Is she really interested in a different type of future for this country? If so, she should do anything in her power to resist the further growth in the Murdochs’ grip on news and media. I recognise options are limited, but that doesn’t mean we should stay silent or ignore the fitness test.”
The shadow culture, media and sport secretary, Tom Watson, also said that the prime minister needed to come clean on what discussions took place with Murdoch during a meeting she held with him in September.
Watson, who played a key role in exposing criminality within Murdoch newspapers, said: “Now that 21st Century Fox has made a bid for Sky it is imperative that Theresa May confirms or denies whether the possibility of a bid being made was discussed at the meeting she had with Rupert Murdoch during her flying visit to New York in September.”
On Friday, Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox said it had struck a preliminary deal to buy the 61% of Sky it does not already own. Culture secretary Karen Bradley has 10 days to decide whether to issue a public interest intervention notice. She must specify what issues, if any, are raised by the transaction in order for Ofcom to launch an initial investigation.
These concerns could include concentration of media power and whether there needs to be a “fit and proper” test to determine whether Fox is committed to standards, such as accuracy and impartial news coverage.
In 2011, the Murdoch bid for Sky resulted in a deal to spin off Sky News into a separate company from his newspapers. News Corp is a separate entitiy from Fox, which means the bidding firm no longer owns UK newspapers. However the former business secretary Vince Cable, who referred the 2011 deal to the competition authorities before Murdoch withdrew his interest, claimed the concerns now were the same as they were five years ago.
He said: “This is yet again a threat to media plurality, choice, just as it was six years ago when I referred this to the competition authorities and it should be investigated. The ownership of the media, whether you’re looking at press, radio, television is very highly concentrated and this makes it even __more concentrated.”
The former Labour leader Ed Miliband also said the government’s next move on the deal would be an indication of whether May was truly committed to standing up to the powerful, as she had claimed in her first address from Downing Street.
He said on Twitter: “Do we want Rupert Murdoch controlling even __more of media landscape? No. Government must refer bid for Sky to CMA/Ofcom. On Downing St. steps you said you would stand up to the powerful. No better test than Murdoch bid for Sky. Over to you?”
Owning Sky would give Fox, whose cable networks include Fox News and FX, control of a pay-TV network spanning 22 million households in Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany and Italy. Analysts have raised the possibility of an EU investigation into foreign ownership.