By Des Freedman Right in the middle of the summer, and without much fanfare, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published two documents that reveal its plans for the media and communication sectors. Perhaps it thought that no one would notice. The first is a ‘strategy document’, Connectivity, Content and Consumers, effectively a white paper on digital … [Read more...]
Report from the Lords select committee on plurality, 25 June
As MPs call on Lord Justice Leveson to comment on the shameful stalemate that has prevailed over press regulation since the agreement of the Royal Charter in March, the House of Lords select committee on communications is quietly and seriously examining the question of what to do about media ownership. We observed the committee on 25 June as it heard evidence from three … [Read more...]
Response to Harriet Harman’s speech on media ownership
On Thursday 13 June shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman used Westminster University's annual Charles Wheeler lecture to call for laws which would limit media ownership. In an echo of our own proposals, she demanded a true plurality law: rigorous ownership caps, hard limits for forced divestiture, lower limits for intervention, and various public service obligations in … [Read more...]
It’s time to put media ownership at the top of the agenda
With Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman’s call for a new Communications Bill establishing rules on media ownership, the vast power of a handful of British media owners is back on the agenda. … [Read more...]
It’s a myth that Parliament hasn’t approved the cross-party Charter
There is a strange kind of hypocrisy in the way some Fleet Street representatives use and abuse the notion of Parliamentary approval. As it happens, the claim that the cross-party Royal Charter - which will now be delayed beyond May 15 - has not been approved by Parliament is misleading at best. On the one hand, Roy Greenslade was "taken to task" on May 2 (by whom?) for … [Read more...]
Results of our consultation on the new Crime and Courts Bill, updated
Today Media Reform is releasing the results of our consultation on press regulation for bloggers. [UPDATE: these results now incorporate responses up until April 21st. The survey is now closed.] Over a period of two and a half weeks we asked bloggers and small publishers to comment on various options for amending the Crime and Courts Bill - which will support the Royal … [Read more...]
Blogs & regulation: where we stand, and what must change
Media Reform has been meeting with bloggers and legal advisors to determine where they stand in relation to the new regulatory proposals. One thing is clear: virtually everything written about this so far in the mainstream press has been wrong (more on that later). … [Read more...]