Murdoch lobbyist adds to UK govt's woes over TV bid - Times of India

LONDON: A lobbyist for Rupert Murdoch's News Corp testified on Thursday that he thought a UK government minister knew that one of his aides was providing Murdoch's company with information on its bid to take over the British Sky Broadcasting satellite network.

Lobbyist Fred Michel told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that he knew he was not supposed to have direct discussions with Jeremy Hunt, Britain's secretary of state for culture, media and sport, who was to decide whether the controversial bid for the lucrative broadcaster could proceed.

The bid was abandoned last year as News Corp was engulfed in a phone hacking scandal at News of the World, its top-selling Sunday tabloid , which was shut down as a result in July.

Hunt's contacts with Michel are an issue because the minister was supposed to be acting in a "quasi-judicial " role, aloof from contacts with interested parties. Yet a cache of emails disclosed by News Corp has raised questions about if Hunt strayed from his impartial role.

Michel made 191 telephone calls and sent 158 emails and 799 texts to Hunt's office between June 2010, when News Corp - the biggest shareholder in BSkyB - announced its bid to buy out other shareholders, and in July 2011, when the bid was abandoned.

More than 90% of those contacts were with Hunt's special adviser Adam Smith, Michel said.

Although Michel's emails to News Corp colleagues - including Murdoch's son James - frequently attributed information to "JH" , Michel said that was shorthand for Hunt's office, not for the minister personally. Michel also admitted that some of the more provocative material in his emails was his own interpretation or, in at least one case, a "very bad joke".