Labour leader Miliband calls for new media ownership rules to limit "dangerous" concentration of power

Labour leader Ed Miliband has demanded for dismantling of Rupert Murdoch's UK media empire in a dramatic intervention in the row over phone hacking.


Murdoch speaks to the media after meeting Milly Dowler's
family, whose phone was allegedly hacked by NoTW

In an exclusive interview with the Observer, Miliband calls for cross-party agreement on new media ownership laws that would cut Murdoch's current market share, arguing that he has "too much power over British public life".
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Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg backed new ownership rules to foster more press diversity but said an independent inquiry should be completed first.

Miliband says that the abandonment by News International of its bid for BSkyB, the resignation of its chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and the closure of the News of the World (NoTW) are insufficient to restore trust and reassure the public.

The Labour leader argues that current media ownership rules are outdated, describing them as "analogue rules for a digital age" that do not take into account mass digital and satellite broadcasting.

"I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News," Miliband said.
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"I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation.
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If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous."