» SubscribeMain section
-
Top story
Parliament debates media ownership
DATELINE: 15/9/11
Media Ownership (Regulation) Mr Graham Allen (Nottingham North) (Lab): As always, it is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hood.
Media ownership in this country is massively over-concentrated, and that has resulted in a number of problems, some of them profoundly unhealthy for our democracy. The media are so over-powerful that they have frightened and corrupted Governments of all political colours, and have chilled and intimidated Parliament and Members of this House in the performance of their duties. Vibrant British politics has shrunken into a grotesque tango between the press and No. 10 Downing street, who are unwilling but inseparably locked partners in a duopoly that diminishes all others, including Parliament, local government and civil society. For me, the ownership problem is not about the corruption techniques that have recently been exposed; it is part of the broader question of the settlement of our democracy: a democratic agenda, and a Britain in which people know their rights, own their politics, aspire to better for themselves and their families as citizens, and are less subjects and placid consumers of low-grade trivia.
Read the full debate here:
House of Commons / 14 Sep 2011 : Column 282WH
Last modified: Thursday, September 15, 2011
Your comments:
» Click here to add your comment.
Comments will be subject to approval and should not be defamatory, obscene, racist, in breach of copyright, or contrary to law. The CPBF is not reponsible for any views expressed here.
Previous media ownership stories
News International to sell Wapping site
Wapping and the Miners' strike - making the connections
Down the Lane
Brooks goes down in flames
Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry: A chance at last to expose hidden collusion
Murdoch blinks
Really the End of the World?
News Corp's BSkyB bid referred to regulator
News of the World to close amid hacking scandal
Backlash for Jeremy Hunt over BSkyB deal
News Corporation moves closer to a takeover of BSkyB – demo outside DCMS today 12 noon to 2 pm
Takeover of BSkyB 'just the begining'
Taking action against the Murdoch takeover
BSkyB takeover delayed
BSkyB takeover delayed
Williams on 'Outfoxed'
Hunt to give final verdict on News Corp's BSkyB bid on 26 April
What the Sky decision tells us about media reform
BSkyB takeover - what the papers said
It's a whitewash - What a way to decide media policy! -Stop the Murdoch power grab for BSkyB
Pic of the DCMS demo, Thursday 3 March
Rupert Murdoch to fund hived-off Sky News in bid remedy
Sky Movies making 'excess profits', says Competition Commission
Why media pluralism matters
News Corporation and BSkyB: What price remedies?
Don't let history repeat itself
Murdoch and Ofcom – why ownership matters
Hunt plans competition probe over Sky bid, but undertakings will be considered first
Campaign against Murdoch gets boost
Who controls the News
-
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.
-
Previous stories
Media Ownership
News International to sell Wapping site
Wapping and the Miners' strike - making the connections
Down the Lane
Brooks goes down in flames
Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry: A chance at last to expose hidden collusion
Murdoch blinks
Really the End of the World?
News Corp's BSkyB bid referred to regulator
News of the World to close amid hacking scandal
Backlash for Jeremy Hunt over BSkyB deal
News Corporation moves closer to a takeover of BSkyB – demo outside DCMS today 12 noon to 2 pm
Takeover of BSkyB 'just the begining'
Taking action against the Murdoch takeover
BSkyB takeover delayed
BSkyB takeover delayed
Williams on 'Outfoxed'
Hunt to give final verdict on News Corp's BSkyB bid on 26 April
What the Sky decision tells us about media reform
BSkyB takeover - what the papers said
It's a whitewash - What a way to decide media policy! -Stop the Murdoch power grab for BSkyB
Pic of the DCMS demo, Thursday 3 March
Rupert Murdoch to fund hived-off Sky News in bid remedy
Sky Movies making 'excess profits', says Competition Commission
Why media pluralism matters
News Corporation and BSkyB: What price remedies?
Don't let history repeat itself
Murdoch and Ofcom – why ownership matters
Hunt plans competition probe over Sky bid, but undertakings will be considered first
Campaign against Murdoch gets boost
Who controls the News
