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The Graf report on BBC Online
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Back in March this year three commercial media trade groups collaborated on a report. They were the European Publishers Council, the Association of Commercial Television in Europe and the Association Européenne des Radios.The document, Safeguarding the Future of the European Audiovisual Market, argued that public service broadcasters received generous ‘State Aid funding’, had vague programming remits, could expand unchecked into new television and internet markets, and could compete unfairly, as a result of state aid, with commercial broadcasters. It demanded urgent reforms.
The document’s aim was very simple - to marginalize public service broadcasting. It argued that public service broadcasters should not be allowed to use new media technologies or draw on funding to develop these. In other words, as patterns of media consumption changed, and new technologies came on stream, public service broadcasters should be put is a state of suspended animation.
The report by Trinity Mirror chief executive, Philip Graf, is a good example of how this war of attrition is been conducted in the UK. The local and regional newspapers, through the Newspaper Society, have complained about BBC Online local web sites intruding into their business area. The British Internet Publishers Alliance lobbied for six years, and argued for a review of BBC Online. BIPA view the Graf report as a ‘victory’ for their efforts (www.bipa.co.uk). They insist, even though the Graf report found no evidence, that BBC Online’s ‘unlimited, unchecked and over resourced activities have has a serious effect by inhibiting commercial investment’. The BBC must ‘be called to account’ and if they fail to deliver on the recommendations in the Graf report, ‘this role should pass immediately to Ofcom’.
Who is behind BIPA? Well it is intriguing that the contact person for BIPA and for the European Publishers Council is Angela Mills Wade, News International’s ubiquitous lobbyist, and that Trinity Mirror is also a member of the EPC.
Last modified: Sunday, August 8, 2004
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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.
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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
BBC CHARTER REVIEW (July 2004)
More from Ofcom
New Ofcom documents
CPBF Response to Ofcom Review of Public Service Broadcasting, Phase 1 – Is Television Special?
Defending Public Service Broadcasting
The danger of top-slicing
Campbell’s alter ego
Without Comment
Privatising spin
Submission to the DCMS on the Review of the BBC’s Royal Charter.
Backing the BBC
Where is liberalisation taking the British media?
DON’T BE COWED: The BBC after Hutton
GCHQ whistleblower gagged.
A Spin Free Regime for Blair?
The end of public service information
Hutton, Kelly and the BBC
What public policies are needed in the face of the marketisation of the audio visual sector?
Ignored at Our Peril
Free Press Editorial - Asset Stripping ITV
Labour & Television Policy
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Look Back In Anger: The Carlton Granada merger
It’s still bad news
COMING SOON
Dear Editor.... CPBF writes to the Guardian
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Submission to the Government Communications Review Group by Nicholas Jones
