Top politicians reveal Murdoch lobbying

Two leading politicians told the Leveson inquiry of the scale of lobbying by News Corp to change the landscape of the UK media.

George Osborne, the chancellor, suggested that James Murdoch, then chief executive of News Corp in Europe, had privately urged the government to “dismantle” the television license fee that supports the BBC. Earlier, Gordon Brown, told the inquiry how the Murdochs and their News International executives had pressed him to neuter the BBC, declaw Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, and pursue a campaign to further their commercial interests.