Murdoch targets Fairfax in Twitter spray

News Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch has leapt to the defence of his besieged company on Twitter, claiming he is preparing to “hit back hard” against accusations that a former subsidiary promoted a wave of pay TV pirating to hurt competitors.

“Seems every competitor and enemy [is] piling on with lies and libels. So bad, easy to hit back hard, which [we are] preparing,” Murdoch tweeted yesterday.

The powerful media titan took aim at the Australian Financial Review (AFR), which focused a series of stories on the piracy allegations.

“Proof you can’t trust anything in Australian Fairfax papers, unless you are just another crazy.”

The AFR has continued its three-day series on the actions of former News Corp subsidiary NDS, which supplies the encrypted smartcard technology used by pay TV networks. The AFR claims NDS had a secret team promoting piracy against News Corp’s pay TV competitors.

But president and chief operating officer of News Corp, Chase Carey, says the company stands by its association with NDS, which it recently sold.

“News Corporation is proud to have worked with NDS and to have supported them in their aggressive fight against piracy and copyright infringement.

COMMENTS