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Communications Bill ‘puts market-driven media before public interest’ warns CPBF
Proposals in the new Communications Bill, published today, would leave Britain’s media almost entirely shaped by market forces says the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF).Says CPBF Chair Julian Petley: "The government, by its own admission, is embarking upon ‘a significant deregulation in media ownership to promote competition’. This will roll back regulatory safeguards in the media."
CPBF argues that in setting up a centralised Office of Communications (OFCOM), watering down public service broadcasting obligations and loosening ownership regulations, the Bill will sideline quality, accountability and diversity. It will also result in less distinctive, regional and local news, entertainment and cultural programmes as both press and broadcasting outlets become concentrated in fewer hands.
Says Julian Petley: "Media Secretary Tessa Jowell’s argument that the media have been over-regulated and over-protected is nonsense. The success of British broadcasting has been based on positive regulation designed to promote high quality content. Now we will see power concentrated in the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats and media owners. The government needs to change the bill if we are to avoid ending up with a broadcasting system dominated by big business, such as exists in the USA."
Julian Petley also warned that the growing overlap of media power and political power in many EU countries could now start to happen in Britain. "If our government puts the needs of the free market ahead of the stability and continuity of public service broadcasting, we could soon begin to see media empires dominating our politics like Berlusconi in Italy.
Working closely with the media and communications trade unions and community organisations CPBF will
campaign for public scrutiny of the Communications Bill. It will press for the joint committee of both Houses at Westminster responsible for streamlining the Bill to hold public hearings and for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh and Northern Ireland Assemblies to do the same.
Further information: Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, 23 Orford Road, London E17 3BJ.
Contact:
Barry White 020 8521 5932 /07774 607 419 (mobile)
Kathy Lowe 020 8521 5932/ 07940 513
628 (mobile)
Email:
freepress@cpbf.org.uk
Detailed comment and TV, radio and press interviews can be arranged with CPBF chair, author and Lecturer in Media and Communications Studies at Brunel University, Julian Petley, 01895 816290 (w), (01895 252968 (h); national council member, CPBF spokesperson for Wales author and Principal Lecturer in Media at the University of Glamorgan, Tom O’Malley, 01443 482 865 (w), 01873 859 628 (h) 07810 456725 (m); national council member and CPBF spokesperson for Scotland Rory MacLeod 0141 647 0377(w/h) 07887 896483 (m);
national council member, author, editor of ‘Free Press’ and Lecturer of Media Studies at Huddersfield University, Granville Williams, 01484 478 460 (w), 01977 646 580 (h)
Editors’ note
The CPBF was founded in 1979 to campaign for a freer, more accountable media. It works closely with the trade unions representing media and communications workers and has a wide membership base including print journalists and broadcasters, media academics, community organisations and individuals. It produces the bimonthly publication ‘Free Press’ and campaigns vigorously on questions of media ownership, public service broadcasting and media reform.
Last modified: Tuesday, May 7, 2002
Previous government policy stories
Communications Bill unveiled....
CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT COMMITTEE: HOUSE OF COMMONS (SESSION 2001-02), 1 May 2002, No 25
Wales needs more public debate on communications policy
NO OFCOM SEATS FOR REGIONS - but battle to defend regional voice goes on
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Government Policy
Communications Bill unveiled....
CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT COMMITTEE: HOUSE OF COMMONS (SESSION 2001-02), 1 May 2002, No 25
Wales needs more public debate on communications policy
NO OFCOM SEATS FOR REGIONS - but battle to defend regional voice goes on
A Voice for Scotland
Communications Bill Roundup - Ownership Consultation
ITN NEWS PROVISION
Summary Response to Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
Culture Minister Promises Wide Consultation on Bill
RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES
BY DCMS and DTI (November 2001)
Wales and the Future of Mass Communications:
Cymru a Dyfodol Cyfathrebu Torfol
The State of the Media - Media Policy and the need for reform.
The Danger in a Reasonable Approach
ITN to Embrace Madonna
Wales, OFCOM and the democratic deficit
Roadshows raise awareness
Trade unionists take up the gauntlet
CPBF to give oral evidence on bill
Media Ownership Consultation
Diverse and Public - Public Service Broadcasting and the Communications White Paper
Consultation on Media Ownership Rules
5 December: CPBF Policy Seminar on Media Ownership
CYMRU RESERVATION:
HEALTH DEVOLVED BUT NOT CASUALTY!
CPBF COMMENTS ON THE COMMUNICATIONS WHITE PAPER
WHITE PAPER OR WHITE FLAG?
DTI DCMS Communications White Paper - A new future for communications
Corporate Media Trends in Europe
CPBF/Public Voice seminar on media ownership
JOWELL ANNOUNCES CONSULTATION PAPER ON MEDIA OWNERSHIP
12 November - Communications revolution: who benefits? Nottingham.
