Much happening in the ongoing Murdoch mania.
Firstly, News International has de-listed itself from the London Stock Exchange, an action that may be mere housekeeping or may presage the next round of disaster for the company.
http://www.crikey.com.au/...
More housekeeping in Rupert Murdoch’s family company. Ahead of the great man’s arrival in Australia to sell the virtues of his biggest divorce, News Corp late last week announced it had tired of being a listed company on the London Stock Exchange, its first port of call when the Sun King outgrew Australia and fled to London (along with a host of fellow Australians) to make his fortune and achieve global fame.
News Corp’s leaving the London Stock Exchange leaves the US listing in New York and Australia as its “home exchanges”. But you have to ask, will Australia follow London when the great split happens?
But the other company — the 21st Century Fox group, which will house the film, TV and other content business, as well as 39% of BSkyB — will retain the old News Corp’s listing in New York. But will it remain listed in Australia? There’s no obvious reason to, it doesn’t have any assets here.
Then This week there have been further case management hearings in front of a new Judge. (The judge who had before this been dealing with the criminal cases has been promoted to the Appeals courts) Previous to these hearings, a few newspaper reporters have been saying how the Journalists appeared to have a very good case and imply that cases would be thrown out of court.
Now the court cases are getting closer, so the reproting restrictions have become much tighter, each announcement of court schedule was splashed with a big reminder that there are legal repercussions in reporting the contents of the court discussions.
However one detail that can be reported is
http://courtnewsuk.co.uk/
Former News International chief Rebekah Brooks will enter pleas tomorrow (weds) to allegations of phone hacking and attempting to derail the police investigation.
It can now be reported that the 45-year-old ex-editor of the News of the World will appear at Southwark Crown Court tomorrow morning for a formal plea hearing.
Tomorrow morning looks like a big news day.
The next story to pop up today Is
http://www.exaronews.com/...
Scotland Yard is investigating allegations that a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation sabotaged Sky TV's biggest rival, Exaro can reveal
Detectives in the Metropolitan Police Services "specialist crime and operations" section are assessing sensational claims that a technology firm then part-owned by News Corporation, NDS, Used a computer hacker to undermine On Digital.
Exaro have established that detectives have contacted senior executives at ITV as part of their enquiries.
That the criminal legal problems appear to be migrating from one corner of the Newspaper business to the core money making TV business must be making parts of the empire quake.
another connected articles, an Interesting Brit one at the New Republic
What News Corp's Hacking Scandal Has to Do with James Rosen's Phone Records | New Republic
It seems to have gone nowhere. After the phone hacking scandal broke two years ago, British politics was in tumult. The world’s oldest English-language newspaper, the News of the World, was peremptorily shut down. News Corp., the world’s second biggest media conglomerate, was in meltdown. Senior executives either resigned (like Dow publisher Les Hinton) or were arrested (like CEO Rebekah Brooks). The resignations were quickly followed by the defenestrations of Britain’s most senior police officers, who had wined and dined with those same executives rather than investigating them.
The Murdoch dynastic succession was also shattered. James Murdoch was forced to forsake the biggest media acquisition in European history (a $16bn bid for the takeover of BSkyB) and left the country in shame. A judge-led public inquisition, the Leveson Inquiry, was set up to look into the nexus between the police, press and politicians—shining an excoriating beam into the cosy cartel of media moguls and prime ministers which, Prime Minister David Cameron admitted, had been “too close.”
More to come Tomorrow.