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Rupert Murdoch to launch Sun on Sunday newspaper 'soon'
BBC News web site
DATELINE: 17/2/12
Rupert Murdoch has announced that he is to launch a new weekend tabloid, the Sun on Sunday, "very soon". The News Corporation boss made the announcement to staff at the Sun during talks at News International's offices in Wapping, London.
Ten current and former senior staff at the paper have been arrested since November in connection with alleged corrupt payments to public officials.
Mr Murdoch lifted all staff suspensions pending police inquiries.
In an email to staff he said: "We will build on the Sun's proud heritage by launching the Sun on Sunday very soon.
"Our duty is to expand one of the world's most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before. Having a winning paper is the best answer to our critics."
He said he would stay in London for the next several weeks and offer his "unwavering support".
He also said "illegal activities simply cannot and will not be tolerated" and described the recent arrests as a "source of great pain for me".
But he praised the "superb work" of Sun journalists and said "the Sun is a part of me".
A middle-ranking News International journalist told the BBC the mood amongst colleagues was "chaos in a good and bad way. Mainly good actually. People really happy at fighting talk". "I remain grateful for your superb work and for the stories you uncover to inform and protect the public. None more so than over the last three weeks," Mr Murdoch's email stated. "My continuing respect makes this situation a source of great pain for me, as I know it is for each of you. We will obey the law. "Illegal activities simply cannot and will not be tolerated - at any of our publications. Our board of directors, our management team and I take these issues very seriously.
"Our independently chaired Management & Standards Committee, which operates outside of News International, has been instructed to cooperate with the police. "We will turn over every piece of evidence we find - not just because we are obligated to but because it is the right thing to do. "We are doing everything we can to assist those who were arrested - all suspensions are hereby lifted until or whether charged and they are welcome to return to work. "News Corporation will cover their legal expenses. Everyone is innocent unless proven otherwise."
Last year News Corporation closed the News of the World over impropriety. Revelations that staff employed by the newspaper hacked the phones of public figures prompted the closure of the 168-year-old publication.
Mr Murdoch arrived on a private plane at Luton Airport from the US on Thursday evening and was taken to Wapping in a vehicle with blacked-out windows.
The meeting followed anger at the way in which the News Corporation's management and standards committee - set up to investigate allegations of wrongdoing - passed on information to the police.
The National Union of Journalists has said news organisations have a duty to protect their sources, and is considering a legal challenge to the company.
Media commentator Steve Hewlett told the BBC Mr Murdoch's relationship with the Sun was an emotional one, but that he was a businessman first.
He said the corporation had no option other than to be seen to "clean house", angering journalists by putting at risk traditional loyalties.
"They are creating wider concerns about handing information about journalists' contacts to police just because an internal committee thinks there may have been a payment that was illegitimate or unlawful to a public official."
Last modified: Friday, February 17, 2012
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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.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
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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
Northcliffe to axe two Kent weeklies in wake of failed deal
A Chance for Change
Submission on Media Pluralism to Ofcom
News Corp subsidiary probed in Australia
James Murdoch resigns from Sun and Times boards
Ofcom media plurality review gets more than 45,000 submissions
Why I believe it's all over for James Murdoch
Campaign grows to oust Murdoch
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
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Hunt to give final verdict on News Corp's BSkyB bid on 26 April
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BSkyB takeover - what the papers said
It's a whitewash - What a way to decide media policy! -Stop the Murdoch power grab for BSkyB
