NEW LABOUR's push towards marketdriven public services is now to be applied to broadcasting. A new communications bill currently before parliament sets the scene for an ultra-commercial US-style media system.
The bill's main aim is to remove all rules barring foreign ownership of UK broadcasting outlets and so allow large swathes of the media to be sold off to the highest bidder. Murdoch
Among likety front-runners are media moguis such as Rupert Murdoch. thought to have his eve on Charmel 5. and af the porator and Wamer who could move to take control of ITV.
Unless major changes are made to the bill, warn media campaigners, the result will be a wholesale dumbing down of programming as global media corporations churn out mass-produced programmes aimed at attracting the biggest audiences and the highest profits.
The strength of the UK broadcast media has always rested on the existence of positive regulations. The communications bill, • however, lets commercial broadcasters off the hook by failing to stipulate the amount and quality of news. current affairs, educa tion and entertainment p mmes they
rate, says Chair of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF) Julian Petley, 'the BBC could be forced to play commercial broadcasters at their own game, damaging its public service remit and suffering the likely loss of the licence fee and gradual privatisation. Bad news
The bill, argues CPBF, is also bad news for Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and regions of the UK, whose local programming has already been severely weakened by mergers within the ITV network.
Now they face the prospect of TV, radio and newspapers being swallowed up by corporations who pay no regard to social and cultural factors in their programming, let alone to local production.
A new super-regulator OFCOM is proposed in the bill with the conflicting job of promoting competition and protecting the public interest! As a token gesture towards the latter, the government proposes a content board and consumer panel. But these bodies will have no independence from OFCOM and no powers to enforce any recommendations on broadcasters.
This year's TUC Congress passed a reso lution strongly criticising the draft bill. Union leaders are beginning to recognise that the government's proposals are not only a threat to people's democratic right to be informed but could create a huge upheaval in the media and telecommunications sector, threatening jobs, social protection at work and the independence of journalists and programme-makers.
However leaders of the media and communications unions have so far failed to go beyond propaganda measures and begin to attempt to mobilise active opposition among their members.
In their lobbying they face a probable Labour-Tory consensus in parliament. Although the LibDems look likely to pro. pose minor modifications and may be able to delay the bill when it reaches the Lords they show no signs of challenging its central deregulatory thrust either.
Only a huge public campaign led by media workers and backed by industrial action can now block the media sale of the century.
• More information: Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, www.cpbf.org.uk
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