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Torin Douglas Torin Douglas | 10:02 UK time, Thursday, 16 September 2010

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Guardian says the business secretary Vince Cable has distanced himself from speculation that he is about to intervene in the controversial full takeover of BSkyB by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. He's been urged by some in the industry to call in media regulator Ofcom to investigate the impact of the proposed transaction.

The BBC's Robert Peston says he expects Vince Cable to ask Ofcom to investigate News Corporation's bid to take full ownership of BSkyB.

The Guardian reports that the commercial radio trade body, the Radio Centre, has called on the BBC to open up its archive of children's programming so it can be broadcast on digital station, Fun Kids. It hopes the BBC will give up the content for free, which Fun Kids would broadcast in a dedicated, advertising-free slot.

The Daily Mail says a Catholic MP has accused the BBC of 'institutional Christianaphobia' over its coverage of the Pope's visit. Mark Pritchard is urging Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to give the corporation's director general Mark Thompson a dressing-down for its news stories on Catholicism and Pope Benedict XVI. It also says that comedians, authors and prominent academics, including Stephen Fry and Terry Pratchett, have joined forces "to whip up public opposition to the pontiff".

The Telegraph reports Selina Scott is coming back to the BBC despite her criticism of its attitude to older presenters. She's standing in for Moira Stuart on Radio 2's Chris Evans Show.

The BBC newspaper review shows the papers are anticipating the Pope's visit to the UK, including the Guardian which says the Pope's UK visit has become "mired in controversy", after one of his senior aides compared arriving in multi-cultural UK to landing in a Third World country.

Links in full

Guardian | Vince Cable adopts hands-off approach to News Corporation's BSkyB takeover
BBC | Ofcom 'to review' News Corp bid for BSkyB
John Plunkett | Guardian | BBC children's classics could return on commercial radio station
Steve Doughty | Daily Mail | Pope faces atheist hate campaign in UK after top German aide says: 'When you land at Heathrow you think you're in a Third World country'
Selina Scott | Telegraph | Selina Scott makes surprise return to the BBC
BBC | Newspaper review

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