Media: Ownership
Debate between Baroness Garden of Frognal and Lord Borrie
Baroness Garden of Frognal
My Lords, the issues of competition and market power were ruled on by the EU Commission on 21 December 2010. I hear what my noble friend says, but the Secretary of State will have options at the end of the consultation: to accept the undertakings, to reject them and refer them to the Competition Commission, or to consult on a revised set of undertakings.
Lord Borrie
My Lords, is the Minister aware that, following the statement that was made on the consultation, I asked a question about how the independent directors of the new company would be appointed? In response to that question, I received a letter from the noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, in which she said that,
“it is not important exactly how the independent directors are appointed providing that they are indeed independent”.
Is that answer not a bit disingenuous? Surely one wants to know how the independent directors are appointed to determine whether they are truly independent.
Baroness Garden of Frognal
I thank the noble Lord for that. The criteria for the independent directors are listed in great detail in the articles here, which set out the connections that they must not have and the sort of people they must be. They must not, for instance, have close family ties to the Murdochs, News Corp or their advisers. The details of the criteria that those people must meet are set out extensively in the memorandum.