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Battle Of The Aussie Media Moguls

Rupert Murdoch may be a Yank now, but he is still taking on his former country's government over changes in media ownership laws, reports the Sydney Morning Herald. In what the paper calls a "dramatic about-face," Murdoch's News Ltd has pulled its support for foreign- and cross-media ownership rules--unless the Australian government ponies up more free-to-air television licenses. The company claims that proposals by Communications Minister, Helen Coonan are "highly discriminatory deregulation that entrenches protection for free-to-air television broadcasters." While the paper notes that "media reform is not a government priority and the Prime Minister, John Howard, has said he only favors changes with broad industry support," Murdoch's stance has put his government in the middle of a media mogul stand-off between him, James Packer, and Kerry Stokes--a source of glee for the opposition. "The government's been messing around with media reform for five years, and now it's falling apart," says a spokesman for the Labor party. "They thought they could have significant changes without upsetting anybody, and now they've got themselves into a real bind."

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