``Ted (Turner) has questions about it and it springs from his regard for independent journalism. I have encouraged him to speak out on this on behalf of the community.'' He said the Time Warner Cable system in New York allowed access to Fox News Network, Murdoch's million-dollar gamble in the US, only after a court case. Explaining why Time Warner finally yielded to Fox, Levin said: ``In New York city we hold a franchise granted by the city, subject to control by the municipal authority. When we succeeded in our law suit in establishing that Fox was unlawfully using the space generated on a municipal channel, wefinally allowed them use of a commercial network.''

He similarly explained the projected $1.1 billion merger between Primestar and Murdoch's direct broadcast satellite business. The Justice Department has now sued to block it but if it goes through, the deal will give the five largest companies in the US (Time Warner among them) a significant share of the direct-to-home services. Levin said: ``This deal is about access to a high-powered satellite system. We're not supporting Murdoch here.''

Time Warner Vice Chairman and CNN founder Turner, on the other hand, gets more personal with his politics. As he told CNN's Larry King in an interview during the conference: ``What bugs me about him is that he uses the media to control governments and further his own motives rather than serve the public.'' He said he succeeds, but only if you define success in terms of Al Capone. ``But I don't think Capone's wife left him and I don't think 67 is any time to begin dating,'' he said, referring to Murdoch's recentmarital troubles.

Murdoch is a constant reference point for Turner. About his partnership with Levin, he said he intended to fulfil his responsibilities, and ``not stab him in the back like Murdoch''. He also said he preferred to give to the United Nations than to politicians like Murdoch who ``expect a lot in return''.

Though Turner surprisingly did not know about the existence of Murdoch's 24-hour news channel in India, he was explicit about the dangers of the Australian-American media mogul trying to ``give money to the Red Army in China and take over India''. ``But people are a lot smarter now,'' he said.

Turner who spent 10 days in India 10 years ago, trekking through the Himalayas and spending time at Doordarshan in New Delhi, plans to return when there's peace between India and Pakistan. ``When I was in India last I saw the most marvellous fighter jets flying over people with hoes in the field. Those jets aren't doing any good,'' he said.