24 hours to fire the Minister for Murdoch

Dear friends across the UK,

Jeremy Hunt is stubbornly clinging to power after a mountain of evidence has emerged showing how he helped the Murdochs with their BSkyB bid. Tomorrow he'll be at the Leveson Inquiry. If we now raise our voices, we can force David Cameron to clean up his government by firing the Minister for Murdoch. Sign the petition:

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt schemed with the Murdochs to help them win the BSkyB deal. So far he's just ditched his adviser, but we can get him to go, too, if we raise our voices before he appears at the Leveson Inquiry tomorrow.

Hunt was dubbed 'Minister for Murdoch' after a deluge of documents published by the Leveson Inquiry revealed how he and his staff sent chummy messages to Murdoch's lobbyist over the crucial months of the BSkyB deal.  Calls are echoing from across the political spectrum for Hunt to leave office, and David Cameron is considering whether Hunt can remain in his government. Our outcry now can make the difference.

Tomorrow Hunt will testify at Leveson. Let's take another massive step to end the crooked collusion between our government and the Murdoch Mafia. Sign the urgent petition to remove Hunt, which we'll deliver with an action outside the Inquiry, and send this to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fire_jeremy_hunt_3/?vl

Hunt was supposed to judge the BSkyB takeover in an independent, quasi-judicial manner. But hundreds of pages of internal News Corp emails and texts released by the Leveson Inquiry show regular correspondence between News Corp and Hunt’s office. The emails show Hunt "shared [News Corp's] objectives" and sent confidential drafts of key statements to News Corp before making them public -- a move News Corp itself says was "absolutely illegal".

Hunt also wrote to the Prime Minister to promote the BSkyB takeover. Despite the clear conflict of interest and lack of professionalism, Downing Street is digging in and backing Hunt. With former Tory minister David Mellor now joining the crescendo of calls for Hunt to go, Cameron knows he faces a vital test of his government's credibility. Our massive public outcry can persuade him to get rid of Hunt this week.

Hunt has shown he isn't fit for his role and can't be trusted. He thinks he can blame his underlings and battle on, and it’s up to us to prove him wrong. Join the urgent call, which we'll deliver via the media with an eye-catching stunt at Leveson on Thursday. Click below and forward to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/fire_jeremy_hunt_3/?vl

Together, we helped scrap the Murdoch Mafia’s bid for BSkyB last summer,and Murdoch's lobbyist recognised our community's power in an email released to the Leveson Inquiry. Now let's clean up our dirty politics.

With hope and determination,

Alex, Brant, Allison, Luis, Alice, Ricken, Emma, and the rest of the Avaaz team

Sources:

Mellor calls for Hunt to quit (Telegraph)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9293447/Jeremy-Hunt-will-quit-says-David-Mellor.html

News Corp email: "key for him [Hunt] to find a way to weaken Avaaz campaign's arguments" (PDF file)
http://avaazbackup.s3.amazonaws.com/000NewsEmailAvaaz.pdf

Jeremy Hunt faces calls to resign over BSkyB claims (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-calls-resign-bskyb?newsfeed=true

Jeremy Hunt ‘should quit’ over News Corp claims (ITV)
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-04-24/james-murdoch-on-phone-hacking-at-the-news-of-the-world-at-the-leveson-inquiry/

Is this the end for Jeremy Hunt?
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/end-jeremy-hunt

Jeremy Hunt and the Murdochs: how minister oiled wheels of BSkyB bid (Guardian)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/24/jeremy-hunt-murdochs-bskyb-bid

Hunt, BSkyB and a damning memo to Mr Cameron (Daily Mail)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149438/Leveson-Inquiry-David-Cameron-knew-Jeremy-Hunt-backed-Rupert-Murdochs-BSkyB-bid.html

Sun sets on Murdoch?

The Murdoch empire's dirty tactics just brought down 5 more of their top journalists and editors, as well as a police officer, a member of the ministry of defence, and an army man. After 29 News Corp arrests, it's clear: Rupert Murdoch must have known about the crimes his employees were committing.

He may have sweet-talked Parliament and slipped by the police so far, but we can hold him accountable for the violations of law and privacy that helped pad his pockets.

Tomorrow, the House of Lords will consider whether Murdoch is "fit and proper" to own our media. If we rally a massive show of public support now we can ensure that it’s more than a symbolic action. Let's push the regulators to revoke Murdoch's licence to operate and end his dirty dealings for good. Click below to join: 

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_murdoch_mafia/?vl

Murdoch has long overseen a crooked operation. Saturday's arrests of News Corp senior staff rocked the Sun's newsroom exactly two weeks after the first arrests of other Murdoch editors and execs--all on suspicion of bribing police and public officials. And it's not over, yet.

The information leading to the arrests came from News Corp, itself. Investigators seized and are searching through more than 300 million News Corp emails, rooting out what appears to be systematic corruption. With an ever-widening net of arrests at all three of Murdoch's UK papers, abuses are widespread, even infecting key sections of the British government.

Murdoch is set to fly in to London to manage the crisis and try to save his corrupted empire. But what must happen now is clear. In light of everything we know, Murdoch and his son James cannot be considered "fit and proper" to run the outlets that provide us our news and the regulator OFCOM must pull the plug. Sign the petition:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/end_the_murdoch_mafia/?vl

Rupert Murdoch is the world's most powerful and dangerous media baron. Twice now, Avaaz members took him on to stop the enormous expansion of his empire -- and won! This time, let's show our power again to shrink his dirty domain for good.