Phone Hacking and the Media
Debate between Baroness Beckett and Jeremy Hunt
Mr Hunt
My right hon. Friend has asked a question that I cannot answer, because every Member of the House can have a view on whether the takeover should go ahead or be withdrawn except me, as I have a quasi-judicial role and so I am unable to prejudge the decision by making a comment. With regard to illegality and the requirement under the Broadcasting Act 1990 that all people holding broadcasting licences be fit and proper, I wrote to Ofcom this morning to ask whether it stood by its original advice that the deal could go ahead, in view of the matters that came to light last week and had News Corporation not withdrawn its undertakings today. I am pleased to say that, with this referral to the Competition Commission, all those issues will be considered properly and fully.
Margaret Beckett (Derby South) (Lab)
Does the Secretary of State not recognise that at a time when wrongdoing was being very strongly alleged, and even more strongly denied, the Prime Minister’s decision then to appoint Andy Coulson to No. 10 as director of communications reinforced the credibility of what we now know to be unjustified denials of wrongdoing? Is that not why the Prime Minister should be here today?
Mr Hunt
With respect to the right hon. Lady, there are all sorts of things that this Government and the previous Government have done that we might now review in the light of the allegations that have emerged in the past week. That is why it is incredibly important that we have these two public inquiries to get to the bottom of press ethics, which is why we are trying to ensure that we grapple with the problem and sort it out, rather than sit on it for a very long time.