Rupert Murdoch
Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has for the first time defended himself publicly against accusations that his is frequently bending over to the Chinese government so safeguard his business interest. The defense comes after Murdoch's bid for the news organization Dow Jones met fierce resistance, amongst others from the Beijing office of the Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones, who won this year's Pulitzer price.
In an interview with the Financial Times (here summerized by Market Watch) he looks back at two specific incidents.
Murdoch rebutted the two cases most frequently cited: the decision by publishing arm HarperCollins to drop publication of a memoir by Chris Patten, the former Hong Kong governor; and the move by Hong Kong-based Star TV satellite channel to stop broadcasting BBC news in China, according to the FT.
Murdoch said the initially thought Patten's book would not sell and got into an argument when editors at his publishing house went ahead anyway. He said he kicked off the BBC and others, because they were costing too much (US$ 10 million per year) on a broadcasting stations that was losing US$ per year.
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