News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB the deal, the proposal was referred to Jeremy Hunt, the Secretary of State for culture, media and sport. Hunt initially elected not to refer to the deal to the Competition Commission, announcing on 3 March 2011 that he intended to accept a series of undertakings given by News Corporation, paving the way for the deal to be approved. The undertakings would have led to Sky News being severed from BSkyB. On 23 June it was reported that News Corp had reached an agreement with Ofcom to approve the takeover, on the basis of Sky News becoming a separate company. By
2011 News Corporation scandals NDS European chief, Ray Adams. In 2012 it was also revealed that Australian Federal police were working with UK police to investigate hacking by News Corp. Various News Corporation owned media outlets have come out in defense of News Corporation, these defenses have themselves met with criticism. The "Wall Street Journal", a News Corporation owned outlet, opined that "politicians and our competitors are using the phone-hacking years ago at a British corner of News Corp. to assail the "Journal", and perhaps injure press freedom in general." Researchers from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism reported that Newscorp's Australian papers gave