Rupert Murdoch has to deal with a persistent and effective Australian shareholder activist in Stephen Mayne.

News Corp tried unsuccessfully to stop a proposal from Mayne that the company scrap its outrageous gerrymander system of Class A and Class B shares. It's a system that effectively strips most News Corp shares of their voting rights and allows Murdoch to control the company with just 15 per cent of equity. Mayne's proposal is to replace that with one class of share.

The proposal now sits on page 18 of the News Corp's Proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its October 19 annual general meeting. It says:

"As News Corporation discovered when it first approached Dow Jones & Company, a two tier voting system can appear highly undemocratic and discourage all attractive takeover bids. News Corp's suite of strategic assets would be highly attractive to private equity bidders, yet the two-tier voting structure discourages their interest.

"News Corp is a company which passionately promoted the idea of spreading democracy to places like Iraq, so it seems inappropriate that our own system of democracy is severely gerrymandered with almost 70 per cent of shares on issue not having voting rights."

Mayne is a former business editor of a Murdoch Australian tabloid and some years ago set up Crikey, an irreverent and popular newsletter (which I'm a subscriber to) that sheds light on corporate and political bastardry.

Mayne talks about his battle with Murdoch in his piece here.