Download the Murdoch meeting summary document (PDF)

Rapture TV has received a copy of a Freedom of Information document, which was released by the Cabinet Office after a long legal battle. The document shows recorded details of both meetings and phone calls between 10 Downing Street and Rupert Murdoch, the media publisher and owner of both the Sun newspaper and Sky News. As you can see the document raises serious issues of political influence of the UK’s top government officials. On the eve of the Labour party conference in Brighton, the Murdoch controlled newspaper The Sun has published a front page headline claiming that the Sun is now supporting the Conservative Party for the UK’s next election.

This change of policy by the Sun follows a series of meeting between the Conservative Leader David Cameron MP and Rupert Murdoch, which took place during the summer of 2008 on the private yacht owned by Rupert Murdoch called ‘Rosehearty’. Shortly after the UK regulator Ofcom published its 2nd Pay TV consultation document, which found that BSkyB was acting on restricting the distribution of Sport and Feature Film content to other Pay TV platforms, David Cameron MP held a press conference to denounce Ofcom and the over regulation of business in Britain.

A clear pattern develops when any government or regulator attempts to regulate the business activities of a Rupert Murdoch controlled business. The anti European policy of Murdoch papers such as the Sun is well proven by an endless stream of anti EU editorials.

The FOI document should show that Murdoch has offered his newspapers full support for foreign policy on Iraq although, as now proven, there were no weapons of mass destruction and the UK was not in any danger of being hit by Iraqi weapons. This raises the question of whether such offers of support by a media organisation to a public figure are either morally right or even legal. After all, a news organisation exists to report the news and not to attempt to influence the events themselves - especially when many innocent lives have been lost by such military actions.

War is not something that should require the support of a newspaper publisher under any circumstances. Are UK voters aware that they are being used in a way to help the business interests of an un-elected businessman?

After you’ve read the document for yourself feel free to comment in the Rapture forum.

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