FCC sources said the Media Bureau late Tues. sent a version of th...
FCC sources said the Media Bureau late Tues. sent a version of the decision on the proposed News Corp. acquisition of Hughes Electronics and DirecTV up to the commissioners for their consideration over the holiday weekend. A decision is…
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expected via circulation. They said the bureau also sent up the annual video competition report, which typically is released to the public in Dec. Meanwhile, 4 federal agencies told the FCC in a letter that they wouldn’t object if the Commission granted News Corp. and GM the ability to complete their proposed deal under certain conditions. The Dept. of Defense (DoD), the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS), the Dept. of Justice and the FBI asked Hughes Electronics to amend the section of its bylaws on its audit committee to clarify that all members were U.S. citizens. The agencies asked that the committee have authority over certain actions, including: (1) Requests from a foreign govt. or other foreign entity to conduct electronic surveillance on a domestic communications network. (2) Requests from foreign entities on operations of domestic communications networks. (3) Corporate decisions on document preservation requests from any U.S. govt. agencies involving a domestic communications network. (4) Requests from foreign entities to preserve, store or destroy documents related to domestic communications requests. (5) Attempts by foreign entities to coerce employees to break U.S. laws. (6) Corporate decisions relating to compliance with “lawful U.S. process.” The agencies also asked the News Corp. board to adopt proposed resolutions acknowledging changes in the Hughes bylaws. In a filing with the FCC, the agencies said the proposed commitments “are adequate to ensure that the executive agencies and other entities with responsibility for enforcing the law, protecting the national security and preserving public safety can proceed in a legal, secure and confidential manner to satisfy these responsibilities.” Jeffrey Chester, exec. dir. of the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD), said the letter was an indication of how the agencies would judge the antitrust issues of the merger. He said that regardless of whether the audit committee was composed of U.S. citizens, it would “simply do his [Rupert Murdoch’s] bidding.”