FAIRFAX BOARD MEMBER FORCED TO RESIGN ON CONFLICT OF INTEREST

Fairfax Media (ASX:FXJ) director David Evans has been forced to resign from the board after a ruling from the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the company said on Monday.

Mr Evans said in a statement the ACMA determined that he could not serve on both the Fairfax Media and Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX:VRL) boards.

Mr Evans said ACMA informed him this was because "Village has a substantial shareholding in Austereo, which owns radio licences in some areas which overlap with radio licences held by Fairfax".

"As a result I have been forced to make the difficult decision to resign from Fairfax," Mr Evans said.

"Fairfax is a wonderful company and I was looking forward to meeting the challenges with the other directors under the leadership of Roger Corbett."

The resignation is effective from Sunday, November 15.

Mr Corbett, the Fairfax chairman, said he was "very sorry" Mr Evans had to resign from the board.

"In the four and a half years David has served on the board he has made a very valuable and insightful contribution," Mr Corbett said in a statement.

"We will miss him."

Mr Evans, a non-executive director, was appointed to the Fairfax board on June 22, 2005.

He has been on the Village Roadshow board since January 2, 2007.

The resignation comes a day before Fairfax is due to hold its annual general meeting, to be held in Sydney on Tuesday.

Mr Corbett has nominated for re-election as chairman, while directors Ron Walker and Julia Kind are stepping down from the board.

Steve Harris, Stephen Mayne and Gerard Noonan have nominated for a seat on the board.

(AAP) rw

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