We were very interested to see this excellent and comprehensive article describing the plurality problems we have in Britain.

It is clear that our existing rules and regulations on media ownership are inadequate. For this reason, we recently began a grassroots internet campaign, DemocracyFail, which is calling for the establishment of a royal commission to examine media ownership, competition and regulation.

For too long we have tolerated an unhealthy concentration of media ownership in Britain. The situation is deteriorating and dangerous. We welcome support and contact with people at home in the UK and also in Australia, the US and other countries who share concerns about the their media plurality. Please follow us on Twitter or visit us at http://democracyfail.wordpress.com

Thank you Jacob for a very timely and interesting article.

I was very interested to read about the situation with the British media, as the issues raised here also have great relevance to Australia.

During our recent election in August, the outright bias and personal attacks launched by the Murdoch press on the (even remotely) "left" side of the political spectrum were an embarrassment to read and a disgrace to journalism.

Mr. Murdoch's main paper,'The Australian' even stated outright that it was going to attempt to "take down" the Green party and published an article declaring that "left-wing" opinions "signify nothing". This is not what one would expect of a nationally distributed newspaper entitled "The AUSTRALIAN". Virtually no attempts were made in any of his papers to provide an unbiased critique of the policies and actions of each political party.

It is unacceptable in a supposedly democratic society that one man is allowed to aggressively force his extreme right-wing views on the public and wield such extreme political power. He needs to be stopped before we have the whole world glued to FOX-excuses-for news.