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Broadcasting Commission in Scotland
DATELINE: 9/8/07
The CPBF welcomes the recent announcement by Alex Salmond, First Minister for Scotland, that he is to establish a Scottish Broadcasting Commission to look into the future of broadcasting in Scotland. The Chairman of the Commission will be Blair Jenkins, former Head of News and Current Affairs at BBC Scotland. The Commission is expected to meet during the autumn and report in early 2008. The Campaign looks forward to co-operating with the Commission and hopes to submit evidence to it, following consultation with CPBF supporters in Scotland at a meeting in the near future. Details of the meeting will be circulated and placed on this website.
From the BBC website:
Commission looks at broadcasting
First Minister Alex Salmond has announced a commission to look into Scottish broadcasting. He called for the Scottish Parliament to be given powers over the area, currently reserved to Westminster.
But Mr Salmond was warned by the UK government that creating a "Scottish Broadcasting Corporation" was a backward-looking proposal.
The commission will be chaired by BBC Scotland's former head of news and current affairs, Blair Jenkins.
Speaking at an event at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, the first minister said the commission would have a broad remit and would combine "substantial industry experience with a broad spectrum of political opinion".
Mr Salmond said the long-running debate over a separate BBC six o'clock news programme for Scotland was only "shorthand" for a much wider debate which had to be conducted.
He said the most pressing issue was a dramatic cut in television production in Scotland in recent years and described the industry's desire to see the BBC and STV spending 9% of their budgets in Scotland as a "floor not a ceiling".
The first minister also criticised television chiefs for claiming an average spend of 3% was due to a lack of talent and ideas.
Mr Salmond said: "It was a previous BBC director general, Greg Dyke, who championed the cause of greater ethnic diversity at the BBC, an organisation which he famously and controversially once described as hideously white.
"It's not just whether the BBC is hideously white but whether it's also still hideously White City, believing that talent and wisdom reside only in West London."
Mr Salmond also said he would be seeking meetings with the main UK broadcasters in a bid to "reverse the steep decline" in network spending on Scottish productions.
"We want to ensure editorial and creative control is exercised in Scotland on behalf of Scottish audiences," he said.
Earlier at the event, the broadcaster and actress Elaine C Smith claimed Scotland was not well served by current broadcasting arrangements.
But David Cairns, minister of state at the Scotland Office, said Mr Salmond was "clearly out of touch".
"Denying Scots access to the world's most respected broadcaster by creating a parochial and narrow Scottish Broadcasting Corporation is a backward-looking proposal which will command little public support," he said.
Mr Cairns said he had sought assurances on an increase in Scottish programming "from the highest levels of the BBC in Scotland".
Scottish Tory culture spokesman Ted Brocklebank said there was a legitimate concern that Scotland was not getting a fair share of national broadcast funding.
However, Mr Brocklebank, a former Grampian Television head of news and current affairs, said: "Nobody is fooled by Alex Salmond's demand that the Scottish Parliament be given a regulatory role over broadcasting, whilst having no control over editorial policy.
"Influencing editorial policy is precisely the ultimate goal of the separatists."
Last modified: Thursday, August 9, 2007
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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
Public Service Broadcasting
Saving Storyville
Stopping Murdoch Now 4
Stopping Murdoch Now 3
A new approach to public service content
PSB a dead theory
BBC - How it must change
Protecting public service broadcasting
Unions call off BBC strike
The media matters
CPBF submission on Public Service to the Culture Media and Sport Committee
Thompson and unions set date for licence fee showdown
BBC licence fee settlement - 'not good enough'
Unions and MPs in last bid to improve licence fee
Countdown to licence fee - but still time to act
BBC Licence fee - only days to act
BBC - How it must change
Murdoch moves in on ITV
Grade abandons ship
Government split over licence fee
MPs to take up campaign against BBC ads
BBC needs realistic funding for switchover costs says DG
Scotland and Digital Switchover : Ready for the Revolution?
Charter Review bypassed Parliament, say Lords
Licence fee decision delayed
Public Service Broadcasting
The BBC's future, our response
Public Service Broadcasting
Tessa Jowell to testify...
Time to save the BBC
Yes to quality – No to digital surcharge
