Rupert Murdoch Urges China to Open Digital Door at World Media Summit in Beijing

BEIJING--(Business Wire)--
Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive of News Corporation, today urged
the Chinese Government to take full advantage of the country`s creative
potential by opening the door to media competition and ensuring that
intellectual property is protected.

Speaking at the World Media Summit in Beijing, Mr Murdoch said that the growth
of Chinese media companies would also be hindered by intellectual property
violations and that more competition would better prepare them for the rigors of
the international market.

"The embrace of the digital age is as vital to China today as its decision
thirty years ago to take its place in the global economy. The policy then was
called `the open door` - China now has a chance to open its digital door," Mr
Murdoch told the audience at the Great Hall of the People.

He urged all content creators, Chinese and international, to recognize that the
"Philistine phase" of the Internet`s evolution was almost over, and that users
would have to pay for quality content in the near future.

"The aggregators and the plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the
co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current
movement toward paid-for content, it will be the content creators, the people in
this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs will
triumph."

Mr Murdoch also commented that with China`s emergence as a global power comes a
global responsibility and urged China to take the lead in restarting the stalled
Doha talks on world trade, noting that "in too many languages, Doha is a
four-letter word".

"It is a moral failing of the rich world that our agricultural markets are
subsidized and protected," he said. "Wouldn`t it be an auspicious sign of our
times if the contemporary catalysts for freer trade, traditional and digital,
were China and India? It would show definitively that the world was no longer
run by a rich man`s club."

Mr Murdoch noted that China must expect more criticism as it takes its place on
the world stage as a superpower, but that it should not over-react to such
criticism.

"I`ve had some personal experience of that phenomenon. A cursory search of the
Internet will throw up some rather vigorous and vitriolic criticism of this
curious character called Rupert Murdoch. But myth is, in the end, not material.
A preconception is not a personality," he said.

"As China emerges, it will be the subject of more criticism, in the true sense
of the word. The people in this hall will sometimes be doing the critiquing. My
personal advice is not to take it personally."

News Corporation

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) had total assets as of
June 30, 2009 of approximately US$53 billion and total annual revenues of
approximately US$30 billion. News Corporation is a diversified global media
company with operations in eight industry segments: filmed entertainment;
television; cable network programming; direct broadcast satellite television;
magazines and inserts; newspapers and information services; book publishing; and
other. The activities of News Corporation are conducted principally in the
United States, Continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Australia, Asia and Latin
America.

News Corporation
Teri Everett, (1)-212-852-7070
Jannie Poon, (852)-2621 8619

Copyright Business Wire 2009