Murdoch Case Shifts Its Focus to a Minister

The long-running tabloid newspaper scandal that has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire delivered a new jolt as its powerful and lucrative television operations moved to the center of a British judicial inquiry with disclosures that a senior cabinet minister, or at least an aide claiming to speak for him, worked covertly to help win approval for a $12 billion takeover of the BSkyB network.

A trove of newly released e-mails pointed to hand-in-glove collaboration between a lobbyist for Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation and the office of Culture Minister Jeremy Hunt, the official designated to pass judgment on the BSkyB bid. That deal, which would have crowned Mr. Murdoch’s 60-year media career, was scuttled last year as the scandal over illicit phone hacking exploded, and now appears out of his reach for years, if not permanently. Mr. Murdoch’s son James testified at the inquiry for five hours on April 24, and Mr. Murdoch himself was to take the stand on April 25 for what was forecast, given the new uproar, to be an intense grilling. Mr. Murdoch has been in London since April 26, conferring with a coterie of advisers, lawyers and communications consultants behind closed doors.