Bad apples

8 Mar 2012 By Quentin Webb

The UK media watchdog has a special team assessing the U.S. media group’s fitness to run broadcaster BSkyB. That test is applied regularly anyway. But the situation’s heated politics make it a less remote possibility that authorities require Rupert Murdoch to sell.

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Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, has escalated its probe into whether British Sky Broadcasting is a “fit and proper” owner of a broadcasting licence, the Financial Times reported on March 8.

The FT, citing information obtained via a Freedom of Information request, said Ofcom had established a dedicated team in January dubbed “Project Apple” to scrutinise the results of Britain’s Leveson inquiry into the media and police investigations into phone-hacking and corruption.

The probe is considering the status of BSkyB Chairman James Murdoch and BSkyB’s 39.1 percent owner News Corp, the newspaper said.

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