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Culture secretary to consider extending public interest laws which could mean News Corporation facing further sanctions Jeremy Hunt is to consider extending the public interest rules that govern the UK media industry so that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation could face further sanctions if it becomes progressively more dominant without making any more British acquisitions. The culture secretary will next month publish a discussion document to kickstart a consultation with the media industry ahead of a green paper towards the end of this year. Legislation will follow in the second half of this parliament. Hunt – speaking in an interview with MediaGuardian – said he was sympathetic to a problem identified by Ofcom, the communications regulator, when it examined News Corp’s proposed £8bn buyout of BSkyB under the public interest tests. The tests, Ofcom said, could only be applied in a merger situation under current law. Hunt said Ofcom had “made an important point” because the public interest provision could not be invoked “because of a media organisation’s economic growth”. He said extending the rules is something “we should look at” in the consultation. Earlier this month Hunt proposed that Murdoch should be allowed to go through with the buyout on the condition that Sky News is spun off, with News Corp only allowed to own up to 39%. Monday is the last day for critics to lodge objections to that plan. Those hostile to the deal – including the companies behind the Guardian, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail – argue that News Corp will become progressively more dominant in Britain. Sky is growing rapidly, and by 2015 News Corp is expected to have a UK turnover of about £9bn, more than double that of the next biggest media group, the BBC. A YouGov poll published Monday conducted for online pressure group Avaaz, which is also opposed to the merger, concluded that nearly 60% of the public thought Murdoch had too much influence on British politics, while 64% said that the merger will give News Corp too much power over the media. Only 5% of the 2300 people polled backed the deal. However, despite the olive branch, Hunt robustly defended his decision, arguing that he had to base it on the “concentration of media ownership, not about market power” – which was why the only appropriate remedy was to keep Sky News separate from the Times and the Sun. He indicated that the controversy over phone hacking by private investigators employed by the News of the World did not influence his decision, but noted that he expected deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers heading up the latest investigation for the Metropolitan police would do a “thorough job”. The consultation document Hunt will launch next month will also set out three areas for discussion starting with how to foster innovation in areas such as games, telemedicine, home education and “micro-broadcasting” or local television. It will also include a section on deregulation with the minister saying there was a “a need to look at” the rules governing how ITV is able to sell advertising space. But deregulation will not cover “taste and decency” or quantity of advertising broadcasters are allowed to air. The final part is to create a coherent framework of content control that could see online video treated more like television. He said he was concerned about internet content streamed onto a home television, which he said “feels like TV” but is not regulated by decency rules. Jeremy Hunt Rupert Murdoch BSkyB News Corporation Newspapers Ofcom Media law Mergers and acquisitions Regulators Dan Sabbagh guardian.co.uk