A former BBC Newsnight reporter will help to decide whether the planned takeover of Belfast Telegraph Newspapers is in the public interest.

Linda Christmas, who has also worked for the Guardian, is a member of the panel appointed by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Byers to investigate the proposed £300m sale by Trinity Mirror to Independent News and Media.

She has been director of the postgraduate course in newspaper journalism at London’s City University since 1989.

Heading the inquiry for the Competition Commission will be Denise Kingsmill, a governor of the College of Law and a non-executive deputy chairman of furniture group MFI.

The panel also includes Gerald Holbrook, president of the Newspaper Society in 1994-95 and a former managing director of Yorkshire Post Newspapers.

The commission is asking for views on the proposed takeover by April 14 and will report to My Byers on June 9.

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