Help fight against media monopoly/ Injustice

From The Excellent folk at Avaaz.org:

Jeremy Hunt has just said he’ll allow Murdoch to own all of BSkyB. We have just three days to flood the government’s public consultation with requests to stop the deal.

We’ve done it before — in the last consultation the government said our stunning 40,000 messages delayed the deal as officials had to read each email carefully, fearing a legal challenge. But now the government is pushing the deal through despite the hacking scandal of murdered Milly Dowler — the latest grim episode that reveals the extent that Murdoch’s media tramples standards and ignores ethics.

Murdoch already controls more of our media than is legal in many countries – and is notorious for using his power to skew our politics. The official consultation ends this Friday — let’s tell the government we don’t want his media empire to control our largest commercial broadcaster. Send a message now to Hunt to pass this deal to the Competition Commission for a full review and tell your friends.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_messages_2/97.php?cl_tta_sign=4a9e6094475581e04ff144691e8595a7

Thanks to hundreds of generous donations from across the UK, Avaaz has launched an all-out campaign to stop the Murdoch deal — running an opinion poll to be released to national press, buying adverts urging key decision-makers to stand up to Murdoch’s corrupting power, and initiating a legal challenge. But to succeed, we must match these tactics with our voices in the official democratic process. We must show that this is something people take personally, in every corner of the country — and that ignoring us would carry a political price.

Many say the deal is done, but if we bombard the political elite, the public and the official process with one clear message — the people of Britain reject this deal — we can still win.

To bypass critics, Murdoch promised to spin off Sky News as an “independent” company. But media experts point out that this is a farce: News Corp will still pay Sky News’s bills, provide its satellite access, and be able to place loyalists on the board. This fake and only temporary independence is exactly the sort of “safeguard” that Murdoch has created to whitewash previous takeovers — and subsequently brushed aside like a cobweb.

Let’s tell Jeremy Hunt that Murdoch has too much power already — we don’t want him wholly owning Britain’s largest commercial broadcaster any more than we want him owning our politicians!

http://www.avaaz.org/en/murdoch_messages_2/97.php?cl_tta_sign=4a9e6094475581e04ff144691e8595a7

Responsible media is a vital pillar in any democracy, informing voters and holding the government to account. Murdoch’s media is the opposite: it spreads hatred, war, and division, and turns politicians into puppets. This week is a major battle for our media freedom. Let’s stand up for our democracy.

With hope,

Alex, Sam, Alice, Brianna, Pascal, Graziela and the whole Avaaz team

Sources:

Jeremy Hunt ‘wrong not to refer NewsCorp bid for BSkyB’:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/8358824/News-Corp-clears-way-for-BSkyB-bid-with-plan-to-spin-off-Sky-News.html

Jeremy Hunt a Rupert Murdoch fan:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/2011/03/04/jeremy-hunt-a-rupert-murdoch-fan-115875-22964525/

News Corp-Sky deal: opponents urge MPs to lobby Jeremy Hunt:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/14/news-corp-sky-jeremy-hunt

Letting Rupert Murdoch buy BSkyB creates a media superpower with worrying influence:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/features/2011/03/04/letting-rupert-murdoch-buy-bskyb-creates-a-media-superpower-with-worrying-influence-115875-22964550/