LONDON (Reuters) - The publisher of the Daily Mirror was cleared to buy rival tabloids the Daily Express, Daily Star and OK! magazine on Wednesday, with the government saying the deal would not limit the free expression of newspaper opinion.
Trinity Mirror, now called Reach announced the 127-million-pound takeover in February, bringing together tabloids from opposite ends of the political spectrum in a group it said would be better positioned to cope with advertisers and readers moving online.
Media Secretary Matt Hancock said he accepted regulators' opinions that the deal did "not give rise to a realistic prospect of a substantial lessening of competition" and did not raise concerns about the range of views and the free expression of opinion in Britain's newspapers.
(Reporting by Paul Sandle; editing by Stephen Addison)
