The escalating nature of the phone hacking scandal has put renewed pressure on Jeremy Hunt to block Rupert Murdoch’s attempts to buy out BSkyB.

The culture secretary all but gave the green light for the deal to go ahead last week, but in the wake of the revelation that the News of the World intercepted messages on murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone, critics have been given another opportunity to voice their concerns.

According the Daily Mirror, ex-deputy PM John Prescott wrote to media watchdog Ofcom last night, saying that it was “still not too late” for the government to block the deal.

Murdoch’s News Corporation owns the News of the World, the Sun and the Times newspapers, and is preparing to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it does not already own.

Critics of the deal say the media’s UK plurality will be compromised, but are now questioning whether News Corp is a fit and proper enough organisation to be allowed expand its media operations in the UK.

The Guardian also called on Hunt to put the deal on ice while News Corp employees face the prospect of potential criminal investigations.

“The BSkyB merger simply doesn’t pass the commonsense ‘bad smell’ test,” said the Guardian‘s editorial.

(Sources: Daily Mirror, The Guardian)

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