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Campaign grows to oust Murdoch
Juliette Garside Guardian Monday 10 October 2011
DATELINE: 11/10/11
The shareholder-led campaign for an overhaul of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is gathering momentum, with a call from the advisers Institutional Shareholder Services for 13 of the company's 15 directors to be voted off the board.
ISS, whose 1,700 clients include pension funds, trade union funds and asset managers in the United States and around the world, issued a condemnation of the media conglomerate's executive and independent directors on Monday.
It said the phone hacking scandal had "laid bare a striking lack of stewardship and failure of independence by a board whose inability to set a strong tone-at-the-top about unethical business practices has now resulted in enormous costs – financial, legal, regulatory, reputational and opportunity – for the shareholders the board ostensibly serves."
ISS wants the firm's founder, Rupert Murdoch, and his sons James and Lachlan voted off the board at the shareholder meeting on 21 October.
An executive summary of the ISS advice to shareholders says the problems stretch back to at least 2004, when News Corporation moved its corporate base from Australia to Delaware. It is also advising a vote against the executive compensation plan, complaining that Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive and chairman, received a cash bonus of $12.5m in 2011, up from $4.4m the year before, despite the revelations of the extent of illegal practices at the News of the World this year.
The only directors ISS recommends voting in favour of are Joel Klein and James Breyer, as they have served on the board for just a few months. Klein runs the company's education division, while Breyer is a partner in the venture capital firm Accel and serves on the boards of Walmart and Dell.
ISS said: "Shareholders elect independent directors to protect against governance risk of self-inflicted damage to corporate reputation, viability and long-term shareholder value. The independent directors, rather than embracing their central governance role, opted not to guard the guardians."
The advice follows several calls from proxy advisory firms for a radical News Corp overhaul. Glass Lewis, which advises institutions with more than $15tn in assets, said shareholders should vote against James and Lachlan Murdoch and four other directors.
The UK's Pirc, the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum, which represents £100bn of pension funds, and the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors have also urged voters to oust directors.
News Corp said it "strongly disagrees" with the ISS advice. "The company takes the issues surrounding News of the World seriously and is working hard to resolve them, however ISS's disproportionate focus on these issues is misguided and a disservice to our stockholders."
Last modified: Tuesday, October 11, 2011
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Previous media ownership stories
Phone-hacking: building the campaign for change
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Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
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Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
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The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Media Ownership
Phone-hacking: building the campaign for change
Parliament debates media ownership
News International to sell Wapping site
Wapping and the Miners' strike - making the connections
Down the Lane
Brooks goes down in flames
Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry: A chance at last to expose hidden collusion
Murdoch blinks
Really the End of the World?
News Corp's BSkyB bid referred to regulator
News of the World to close amid hacking scandal
Backlash for Jeremy Hunt over BSkyB deal
News Corporation moves closer to a takeover of BSkyB – demo outside DCMS today 12 noon to 2 pm
Takeover of BSkyB 'just the begining'
Taking action against the Murdoch takeover
BSkyB takeover delayed
BSkyB takeover delayed
Williams on 'Outfoxed'
Hunt to give final verdict on News Corp's BSkyB bid on 26 April
What the Sky decision tells us about media reform
BSkyB takeover - what the papers said
It's a whitewash - What a way to decide media policy! -Stop the Murdoch power grab for BSkyB
Pic of the DCMS demo, Thursday 3 March
Rupert Murdoch to fund hived-off Sky News in bid remedy
Sky Movies making 'excess profits', says Competition Commission
Why media pluralism matters
News Corporation and BSkyB: What price remedies?
Don't let history repeat itself
Murdoch and Ofcom – why ownership matters
Hunt plans competition probe over Sky bid, but undertakings will be considered first
