Down Jones Shareholder Says
Murdoch’s Chinese Censorship
Leaves Fox Guarding the Henhouse
If News Corp. Buys Respected WSJ
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Rupert Murdoch: “We’re not coming in with a bunch of cost-cutters. (But) I’m not saying it’s going to be a holiday camp for everybody.” Murdoch quote about the Wall Street Journal. Photo: United Nations |
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James H. Ottaway, Jr.: “Dow Jones is not for sale, at any price, to Rupert Murdoch.” |
May 7, 2007
James H. Ottaway, Jr., who controls a minority stake of Dow Jones stock, claims Rupert Murdoch is unfit to own the Wall Street Journal.
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Ottaway cited Murdoch’s deal to censor Star TV in China, among other free speech offenses.
“Dow Jones is not for sale, at any price, to Rupert Murdoch,” the New York Times quoted Ottaway as saying in its Monday edition (May 7, 2007).
Murdoch has offered $5 billion to buy Dow Jones, the parent company of the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch is offering $60 per share for stock that recently traded at $36 a share. The Ottaway family controls about 5-percent of the voting stock of Dow Jones. The Bancroft family also opposes Murdoch’s takeover bid and family members own a controlling share of Dow Jones stock, according to the New York Times.
Ottaway also criticized what he sees as Murdoch’s use of his New York Post and Fox News to support Murdoch’s “friends, political candidates and public policies.”
Murdoch says he would not interfere with the editorial side of the Wall Street Journal and is willing to set up a separate board of directors to insure journalistic integrity, according to the Weekend Australian, which Murdoch owns.
Murdoch’s Star TV broadcasts entertainment into China via satellite. In 1994, when the Chinese authorities complained about the BBC’s coverage of human rights abuses in China, Murdoch dropped the BBC from Star TV, according to the Sacramento Bee newspaper in California.
In 1998, Murdoch’s book publishing company, Harper Collins, cancelled a book contract with Chris Patton, the last British governor of Hong Kong, according to the New York Times. Patton’s book was critical of the Chinese government for human-rights abuses.
