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Media Brief

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Torin Douglas Torin Douglas | 10:53 UK time, Tuesday, 25 January 2011

I'm the Ö÷²¥´óÐã's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has said this morning that he intends to refer News Corporation's bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission. But he has given News Corp extra time to address concerns he has regarding "potential threats to media plurality" the Ö÷²¥´óÐã reports. He said Ofcom recommended referring the merger to the Competition Commission.

the Ofcom report and explains his position.

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã is to cut about 200 websites as it reduces spending on its online output by a quarter. Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online's budget will be cut by £34m and 360 posts will go over the next two years. I identify some of the sites that will go and ask how far users will notice the changes.

What do the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Online cuts mean? The "No one will disagree with a coherent editorial strategy and a better technical infrastructure, and that package is pretty convincing. But this ...should have been in place years ago."

The TV footie pundits Andy Gray and Richard Keys have had the yellow card - and could end up getting a red. "The patronising pair were carpeted and given a one-match ban by Sky Sports bosses after being caught sniggering off-air about a female match official - and saying women can't understand the offside rule. But now there are calls for them to be axed altogether."

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã reports West Ham board member Karren Brady Sky Sports presenters Richard Keys and Andy Gray "made her blood boil". They were recorded making remarks about a female official, and dismissing Brady's views on sexism in the sport. On Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio 5 live, she said: "It never would have occurred to me that they had these views, whether public or private."

The the Crown Prosecution Service will adopt a "robust approach" in examining "recent or new substantive allegations" of phone hacking. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, said he had agreed the approach with the Metropolitan police. The phone-hacking scandal may be extending beyond the Murdoch stable. Paul Marsden, a former Liberal Democrat MP, told the Ö÷²¥´óÐã he had begun legal inquiries to find out whether his phone was hacked by the Daily Mirror in 2003.

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã's Robert Peston says News International has changed its strategy on the phone-hacking scandal. Executives are engaged in finding out everything they can about who was hacked by the News of the World, and who at News International knew. "Once they have the details, they will offer settlements to those whose privacy may have been invaded - to cut out the need for huge lawyers' fees. Any culpable News International executives will be sacked."

The Ö÷²¥´óÐã's newspaper review says the Russian airport bombing is given plenty of coverage in the papers. Under the headline "The Moscow massacre" the Independent prints a dramatic photograph of a man being rescued. The Daily Telegraph says the Russian security services were tipped off a week ago that an attack was planned at one of the capital's airports.

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