© David Moir/Reuters
"The idea there was some grand bargain between me and Rupert Murdoch - that is not true," he said in an interview with BBC television, in which he also defended the government's austerity measures after economic data last week showed the U.K. slipped back into a recession in the previous two quarters.
The government's links with media groups, in particular News Corp., have come under renewed scrutiny this week after the special adviser to the culture minister resigned over his close contacts with the Murdoch-run company during its efforts to take full control of pay-television operator British Sky Broadcasting Group BSY.LN +0.90% PLC last year.
Opposition lawmakers have called for Jeremy Hunt, the minister for culture, media and sport, to also resign over the allegations he was too close to News Corp. while he handled the regulatory process over the BSkyB bid.
Mr. Hunt has said he acted with "scrupulous fairness throughout" the process and pledged to give evidence on the matter before Brian Leveson, a government-appointed judge who is conducting a public inquiry into British media practices.
Mr. Cameron again backed his culture secretary, saying he had done an excellent job. As for his own conduct, he admitted that he had wanted the support of as many newspapers and media commentators as possible, but he didn't govern or change his policies to suit media proprietors.
"People watching this need to know, the positions I reach are because I believe them, I think they are right for our country; that's the platform I stand on," he said.
Mr. Cameron said he would abide by what the Leveson inquiry requests. There was too much "closeness" in the relationship between politics and the media and the problem had been going on for a long time, he said.
"We've got the opportunity as a coalition government with a judge-led inquiry whose terms are agreed by all three party leaders, we have got the opportunity to get it to a much, much better place," the prime minister said.
Mr. Cameron reiterated that he would not set up a parallel investigation into whether Jeremy Hunt broke ministerial rules, saying the Leveson inquiry must be allowed to take its course. However, he said he would act before the Leveson inquiry ended if evidence arose that indicated Mr. Hunt has acted improperly.
"If information arises that paints a different picture from the one that we have heard then obviously I know my responsibilities toward the ministerial code, toward how ministers behave, and I would act," he said. "As things stand I don't believe Jeremy Hunt breached the ministerial code."
News Corp.'s bid to take full control of BSkyB collapsed last July after revelations of phone hacking at News Corp.'s U.K. tabloid, News of the World. News Corp. owns a 39.1% stake in BSkyB. News Corp. also owns Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.
In the interview, Mr. Cameron also said the government would stick to its austerity program and redouble efforts to make sure its economic policies are delivering. U.K. gross domestic product fell 0.2% in the first quarter of this year after a 0.3% contraction in the final three months of 2011, raising fresh questions about the wisdom of the government's plan to slash spending and cut hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs to reduce its debts.
"The figures this week were extremely disappointing...but I tell you what we absolutely mustn't do and that is throw away our plans for dealing with the debt, dealing with the deficit, making sure public spending is properly reduced in certain areas, because if we did that what we would lose is the low interest rates we have," Mr. Cameron said.
The poor economic figures have heaped more pressure on Mr. Cameron's coalition government ahead of local elections on May 3 after it suffered a barrage of criticism for the policies in its annual budget announced last month and handling of a threatened strike by fuel tanker drivers.
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times newspaper puts Mr. Cameron's centre-right Conservative party on 29%, the lowest level since 2004 and far behind the main opposition centre-left Labour party on 40%. The survey of 1,717 adults on April 26-27 also showed the Liberal Democrats, the smaller centrist coalition party, on 11%, only marginally ahead of the anti-European U.K. Independence Party on 10%.
Asked what his government was going to change to get the economy moving, Mr. Cameron said: "You redouble all our efforts to make sure that whether its bank lending, whether its manufacturing industry, whether its regional policy, whether its enterprise zones, whether its our work program...make sure all of those things are delivering."
Mr. Cameron said the economy was going through a difficult process of rebalancing away from financial services and debt towards manufacturing. The private sector was growing, but not as fast as he would like, he said.
"I think we need to look at all of the areas - how we get our banks lending, how we make sure the money goes into infrastructure, how we make it easier for businesses to employ people, how we boost our exports, how we make sure manufacturing and the rebalancing of our economy takes place - all those things are on the table," he said.
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