Murdoch Brings a Tabloid Called the Sun to India

When not trying to buy up the world's most influential newspapers or large parts of cyberspace, Rupert Murdoch is apparently seeking to import the Sun's bawdy brand of tabloid journalism to India.

The influential business daily Business Standard reported Mr Murdoch was entering "Indian newspaper space with an English tabloid, called the Sun" that would begin printing in Tamil Nadu, in the south of the country. India is one of the few countries in the world where newspaper circulations are rising, and Indian law allows a foreign company to own 26% of a newspaper group.

If the press reports are to be believed, the 76-year-old billionaire, whose Star television network is India's most watched, is contemplating a tie-up with a politically well-connected Indian media company called Sun TV.

The editor-in-chief of the Hindu, N Ram, said that Tamil Nadu, Sun TV's base, already had a prurient, sensationalist tabloid culture. "It is pretty raw and Murdoch would only worsen the situation here. Although he could not get away with page 3 - it would end up in the courts under the obscenity laws."

Southern India's tabloid press is "full of sex and crime" according to senior journalists.

"Politics in India does not interest Rupert at all. He's got London and New York for that. But I think he knows newspapers and probably spotted an opportunity. I just don't know where he'll get the snappy writers required for tabloids from. Indian journalism is so damn verbose," said Vinod Mehta, editor-in-chief of Outlook magazine.