Britain's culture minister has denied having inappropriate contacts with Rupert Murdoch's media empire in testimony to the Leveson Inquiry.
Jeremy Hunt admitted he was "sympathetic" towards US-based News Corporation's doomed bid for control of British satellite broadcaster BSkyB.
However, despite evidence of phone and text communications with Mr Murdoch's son James and other News Corp figures, Mr Hunt said he had showed no bias after British Prime Minister David Cameron appointed him to decide on whether the bid should proceed.
"It was widely known that I was broadly sympathetic towards the bid," said Mr Hunt, who is the secretary of state for culture, Olympics, media and sport.
"I, broadly speaking, had the view that BSkyB was already controlled by the Murdochs so I didn't think there was a change in plurality, but that due process had to be observed," he told the inquiry in London.
The inquiry heard that before being appointed to decide on the £7.8bn (€9.7bn) bid, Mr Hunt texted James Murdoch to congratulate him on winning European Union approval for the takeover.
News Corp eventually abandoned the bid in July 2011 as the phone-hacking scandal erupted at Mr Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, which he subsequently closed.
Mr Cameron swiftly launched the Leveson Inquiry in response to the scandal.
Once viewed as a possible successor to Mr Cameron, Mr Hunt has faced calls to resign after other messages he sent to News Corp while he was considering the BSkyB bid were revealed in an earlier hearing.
Mr Cameron's coalition government asked Mr Hunt, who is from the prime minister's Conservative Party, to judge whether the bid would threaten media plurality after Liberal Democrat Business Secretary Vince Cable was stripped of the role.
Mr Cable told two undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph newspaper that he would attempt to block the bid as part of a "war" on Murdoch.
However, one month before he was appointed to the "quasi-judicial" position to decide on the bid, Mr Hunt privately wrote to Mr Cameron to warn that blocking the takeover would harm Britain's media sector.
BSkyB now faces an inquiry by regulators into whether it is a fit and proper licence holder.
The inquiry has uncovered dozens of light-hearted text messages between Mr Hunt and French News Corp lobbyist Fred Michel, whom Mr Hunt called "mon ami" and "daddy".
Mr Hunt told the hearing today that was because their wives had both given birth in the same hospital at around the same time.
When details of the email cache emerged, Mr Hunt asked for an earlier hearing, but his request was denied by the head of the inquiry, senior judge Brian Leveson.
The minister's special adviser, Adam Smith, resigned in April after messages disclosed by the inquiry revealed that Mr Hunt's office had passed confidential information to News Corp.
Mr Hunt's testimony will be closely watched by Mr Cameron, who is facing renewed pressure after his former media chief Andy Coulson, an ex-News of the World editor, was charged yesterday with perjury.
Mr Cameron himself is due to testify to the inquiry on 14 June, according to The Times newspaper, which is also owned by Mr Murdoch.
The Times also reported a rift between Mr Cameron and his most senior civil servant, Jeremy Heywood. The premier's allies say Mr Heywood was too enthusiastic about setting up an inquiry which has become politically perilous.
The Leveson Inquiry was set up by Mr Cameron after the hacking scandal exploded last July with the revelation that the News of the World had accessed the voicemail of a missing teenager who was later found murdered.
Rupert Murdoch closed the paper in response.
