Ofcom steps up 'fit and proper' probe into BSkyB The regulator has called on News Group Newspapers, the News Corp subsidiary which publishes The Sun and, formerly, the News of The World, to hand over documents relating to numerous court battles with alleged victims of phone hacking by the tabloids. James Murdoch remains on the BSkyB board as a non-executive director, and News Corp controls a 39pc stake in the broadcaster, raising the prospect that he will have to step down altogether and News Corp will have to sell down its stake. Ofcom said earlier this month that the probe had moved from a monitoring phase to "evidence gathering," but this is the first time it has called for News Corp or BSkyB to hand over documents. As part of [its] ongoing assessment Ofcom has contacted News Group Newspapers requesting documents which it understands are held by the company and which may be relevant to this assessment. BSkyB is party to this correspondence," the regulator said in a statement. The documents Ofcom is seeking relate to the civil litigation cases. Ofcom is seeking to obtain documents that were ordered to be disclosed in the civil litigation between numerous complainants and News Group Newspapers.