Kevin Rudd Launched A Petition Calling Rupert Murdoch’s Media Monopoly A ‘Cancer’ On ‘Democracy’

Earlier today, Ex-Prime Minister and handball champion Kevin Rudd launched a petition calling for a Royal Commission into the Rupert Murdoch media empire.

The video has amassed over 300,000 views on Twitter and over 12k likes and 9k shares on Facebook. In the passionate video, Kevin Rudd speaks directly to the Australian people and declares “Murdoch has become a cancer, an arrogant cancer on our democracy.”

“Today, I’m launching an official petition to the Australian Parliament, calling on the Parliament to establish a Royal Commission into the abuse of media monopoly in Australia, in particular the Murdoch media,” he said.

“And to make recommendations to maximise media diversity ownership for the future lifeblood of our democratic system.”

According to the ex-PM, there is no such thing as a “level playing field” in the Australian media industry anymore. Rudd also blames the concentration of media ownership on the polarisation of political ideology in our society.

“Murdoch has loss-making newspapers. But he keeps them and buys more of them with a single purpose in mind, which is to maximise his political power in the country in defence of his idealogical interests,” he said.

However, within a few hours of being posted on social media, the Australian Parliament House (APH) website crashed because too many people were trying to sign the petition.

“So many thousands have tried to sign that it’s apparently triggered the Parliament’s cyber defences. So please be patient and don’t give up. We’ve been on to the House of Representatives to fix it,” Rudd said on Facebook.

This comes after the ABC aired a BBC documentary called The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty, which takes viewers on a journey through the media mogul’s life.

The documentary looks at the Murdoch empire’s influence in not only the Australian political sphere, but also his involvement in UK and US politics.

You can sign the petition here.

You can also watch The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty on ABC iview here.

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