FSA shows interest in News Corp emails Communications between an adviser to Jeremy Hunt, culture secretary, and a News Corp official about the media company's abortive bid to take full control of BSkyB could fall into "market abuse territory" and may spark an investigation by the City watchdog. People familiar with the regulator's thinking said the Financial Services Authority would be particularly interested in an email in which Frederic Michel, News Corp's director of public affairs, said Adam Smith, an adviser to Mr Hunt, had given him advance information of an announcement about Ofcom's investigation into the bid. Mr Smith resigned earlier on Wednesday. The City watchdog has recently brought a series of cases involving the sharing of market-sensitive information - such as merger announcements - before it was made public. In several cases, including that of former JPMorgan banker Ian Hannam, no trading took place. Mr Hannam is fighting the allegations. The crucial test in investigations of this type is whether the information is timely, precise and price-sensitive. Market abuse investigations routinely take a year or more. The Leveson inquiry into press standards on Tuesday published 163 pages of documents that detail communications between senior executives at News Corp and advisers to Mr Hunt as the media group was pursuing its £8bn bid for control of BSkyB. The email in question was sent from Mr Michel, the former director of public affairs Europe at News Corp, to James Murdoch, News Corp's deputy chief operating officer, on January 24 2011. Mr Michel wrote that he had "managed to get some info" on what Mr Hunt would announce to parliament the following day "although absolutely illegal." Mr Michel also suggested there was an "agreed plan" between News Corp and the government that would lead to "game over for the opposition" [to the proposed bid]. Mr Hunt was not originally involved in the decision to supervise the bid, but was subsequently handed the quasi-legal role in December 2010 after Vince Cable, business secretary, was moved from that role. Mr Cable had told two undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph that he had "declared war on Rupert Murdoch." Tens of emails were exchanged between a special adviser to Jeremy Hunt and Mr Michel during the period that Mr Hunt was in charge of ruling on the bid. News Corp later abandoned its pursuit of BSkyB. Avaaz, the campaigning group, started a petition on Wednesday to have Mr Hunt removed form office. Explosive emails were released that show that ... Jeremy Hunt schemed with the Murdochs to help them win the BSkyB deal. This is an outrageous breach of his public duties. Instead of properly scrutinising this deal, the emails show that Hunt set up a secret back channel to feed information to News Corp. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary of the National Union of Journalists, said: "Jeremy Hunt has utterly compromised his position and cannot remain in post - he should resign now and have the grace to admit that his contact with James Murdoch was a grave error of judgement and a violation of his quasi-judicial role during the BSkyB bid. " Mr Hunt earlier defended his role overseeing the bid, telling MPs he conducted himself with "scrupulous fairness." While he admitted that his communication with News Corp during the bid process went "too far," he said he had not known the full extent of Mr Smith's communication, as detailed in the emails presented to Leveson.