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A MARKET-DRIVEN BILL
128/Granville Williams
We have to make changes to the dangerous proposals in this bill...
The Communications Bill, published on 7 May, will leave Britain’s media almost entirely shaped by market forces. The US news magazine, Time (20/5/2) got it right when it said the bill ‘threw open the airwaves to non-EU countries in a way not yet seen in Europe. The rules are a free-for-all: national newspapers and media giants like AOL Time Warner, Viacom and Disney can now buy commercial TV channels, while US concerns like Clear Channel are free to snap up radio stations.’
US media groups are jostling for position to enter the biggest English-speaking market outside America. ‘They have been waiting for this chance a long time. When the bidding finishes, Europe might even sneak a peek at its own broadcasting future,’ the report concludes.
There are essentially two prongs to the bill. The first is a radical redrawing of the media ownership rules which will make them the most liberal in the world. They make nonsense of the Culture Minister’s claim that the bill ‘will protect the diversity and plurality if our media’.
The rule preventing non-EU ownership of our media will go; national newspapers can own Channel 5, national radio and local radio stations; a single ITV will be allowed; ITV regional franchises can also own local radio licences; and newspaper mergers will not require prior consent. It is a bonfire of all the rules that were there to protect diversity, and the media companies will be extremely pleased about most of them.
The second prong is the move towards ‘light touch’ regulation. As Julian Petley, Chair of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, points out, "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."
By 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.
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.
In both Europe and the United States we are seeing the growing overlap of media power and political power. Silvio Berlusconi in Italy, Rupert Murdoch here, and in the United States the awesome lobbying and political clout of the big media groups who before the 1996 Telecommunications Act ensured they got what they wanted out of it. Since then they have relentlessly lobbied for the end of other restrictions on media ownership, and have a friendly ear in the Federal Communications Commission chair, Michael Powell, whose view of media ownership rules is ‘Validate or Eliminate’.
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.
We have to make changes to the dangerous proposals in this bill.
Last modified: Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Previous government policy stories
Comms Bill scrutiny starts today
'Where is Scotland in the Communications Bill?' ask media campaigners
'Where is Wales, public service and quality in Communications Bill?' ask Welsh media campaigners.
Communications Bill ‘puts market-driven media before public interest’ warns CPBF
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
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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
Comms Bill scrutiny starts today
'Where is Scotland in the Communications Bill?' ask media campaigners
'Where is Wales, public service and quality in Communications Bill?' ask Welsh media campaigners.
Communications Bill ‘puts market-driven media before public interest’ warns CPBF
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
