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
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