By Katharine Murphy
THE Gillard government is expected to unveil today a new inquiry into the media after a tussle last night with the Greens about whether concentration of ownership should be on the table.
The government has been trying to persuade the Greens to leave the politically sensitive issue of media ownership to its pre-existing ''convergence'' review rather than have it examined in the new parliamentary inquiry.
News Limited controls 70 per cent of the Australian newspaper market.
The convergence review, which is considering regulation in the digital age, will release next week five new discussion papers - including one scrutinising media diversity, competition and market structures.
But the Greens have resisted. The Age believes the Senate powerbrokers signalled yesterday that they would settle for terms of reference encompassing media ''diversity'' in the event an explicit reference to ownership became too difficult.
''A robust inquiry which can promote media diversity and ensure the public's recourse when wrong behaviour occurs would serve Australia well,'' Greens leader Bob Brown said amid the talks late yesterday.
The talks were also examining whether the inquiry could be conducted outside the parliament.
Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told a restive Labor caucus earlier in the day that an inquiry would proceed after outspoken backbenchers John Murphy and Doug Cameron criticised News Limited's dominance of the Australian newspaper market.
Senator Conroy said he did not need a new inquiry to establish who controlled what, or to establish bias, which he has previously attacked in News Limited publications. News controls 70 per cent of the Australian newspaper market.
The Communications Minister said a new inquiry was not meant to be a witch-hunt against News Limited; it should be about privacy protection for individuals and the role of media regulators. He said the government would not support the Greens' proposed terms of reference.
But Mr Murphy, who has pursued the issue doggedly within government ranks, argued that an inquiry should examine concentration of ownership with a view to News Limited being forced to divest some of its newspaper assets.
''It is my long-held belief that News Limited's 70 per cent ownership of all our newspapers, together with its very extensive electronic media interests, including its 25 per cent share in monopoly pay TV Foxtel, is not in the public interest, nor is it good for our democracy,'' Mr Murphy told the caucus.
Last night he told The Age an inquiry minus a remit on ownership would demonstrate the government was frightened.
''The government is frightened of News Limited. We should take the gloves off to News Limited.''