British PM backs Murdoch's News Corp. deal for BSkyB

[July 06, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron said the phone hacking scandal will not affect Rupert Murdoch's politically sensitive multibillion pound (dollar) takeover of broadcaster BSkyB in Britain.

The government has already given qualified approval to Murdoch's News Corp. to take full control of the satellite broadcaster. Media regulator OFCOM now has to sign off the deal.

Opposition leader Ed Miliband had asked Cameron to reconsider after allegations that Murdoch-owned tabloid News of the World had hacked into the mobile phones of a missing schoolgirl and the families of London terror victims, in addition to celebrities and royals.

Cameron said Wednesday that the government had followed the correct procedures over the BSkyB deal.

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THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE.
AP's earlier story is below.

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LONDON (AP) -- Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron has called for a further inquiry into the phone hacking scandal engulfing the News of the World tabloid.

Cameron says an independent inquiry needs to look at why an original police investigation did not get to bottom of what happened when the scandal first emerged several years ago.

The demand came as British police revealed they would investigate allegations that officers received payments from the tabloid newspaper, thanks to new documents given police by the tabloid's parent company, News International.

Lawmakers are staging an emergency House of Commons debate Wednesday to vent their outrage over a widening tabloid phone hacking scandal that allegedly targeted a missing schoolgirl and the families of London terror victims in addition to celebrities and royals.

News International is the British linchpin of Rupert Murdoch's global media empire.

[Associated Press]

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