Former British prime minister John Major informed members of the Leveson inquiry that Rupert Murdoch attempted to persuade him to change Britain’s European policy in return for favorable coverage in Murdoch’s newspapers. Major said that during a dinner in 1997, Murdoch, founder of News Corporation, informed the then-prime minister that the nation’s European policy were not in line with his own views.
According to Major,
It became apparent in discussion that Mr. Murdoch said that he didn’t like our European policies and wished me to change our European policies. If we couldn’t change those policies he could not and would not support the government.
It is not often someone sits in front of a prime minister and says to a prime minister: ‘I would like you to change your policy or my organization cannot support you.’
Via Reuters.
