BSkyB has said it remains “fit and proper” to hold a broadcasting licence in the light of the Commons Media Committee report into the phonehacking scandal that had engulfed News Corp’s UK newspaper business.
“It is important to remember that Sky and News Corp are two separate organisations and we think our track record as a broadcaster is a better way of judging our licence,” BSkyB Jeremy Darroch told an investor call, pointing to the broadcasters investment in production and jobs. “We’re understandably proud of our contribution, which we think has been second to none, and has been lost in all of this”.
In the report, six of the cross-party committee declared that News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch was “not a fit person” to run a major international business, echoing the “fit and proper” person test by the regulator Ofcom, which is currently subjecting Sky to additional scrutiny. However, four of the committee disagreed, splitting it across party lines.
The report also accused three former News International executives; former executive chairman Les Hinton; former News of the World editor Colin Myler and former legal manager Tom Crone of giving misleading evidence to Parliament.
In a statement News Corp said some of the findings were “unjustified and highly partisan”.
News Corp admitted to serious wrongdoing at the News of the World and that its response had been “too slow and too defensive”.
