fp174:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 17/02/2010 20:02 Page 1 FREE Press No 174 January-February 2010 £1 Journal of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom Press will HERE COMES set terms THE MEDIA of debate by Nicholas Jones Online participation in this year’s general election is certain to set a new benchmark for the web’s influence on ELECTION political debate but the British blogosphere will be hard pressed to ● lot will hang for media policy in match the impact achieved in the Can the UK keep the public the coming UK general election. campaigning for and against President service broadcasting that These questions (left) are just the Obama. biggest: there are uncertainties Unlike the US, where television and people want? Will the BBC too around cross-platform publi- radio are dominant news providers Acation as the Digital Economy Bill strug- along with the internet, Britain has a licence fee be safe and its gles through parliament, before the elec- powerful national press which regularly digital services be free to tion even starts. calls the shots and commands the news There is also the growing intimacy agenda. expand? Or will they be cut between the Conservative leadership Much of the traffic generated by back to benefit commercial and the still-powerful Murdoch cross- blogs and social networking sites is a media group, the biggest in Europe. response to the storylines of the daily competitors? To determine campaigning priorities papers and it still tends to be the press and the questions to put to the parties, rather than the internet which retains the CPBF is preparing a Media the clout to transform online chatter ● Can local and regional Manifesto, for circulation in both print into mainstream news. and online versions: a compact publica- While the established media can only news be maintained or will it tion focusing on issues to place in the observe what is said on the internet – be abandoned to the mercies political debate. and has no control over where an It is a time of extreme political and argument might end up – the of the corporations that are Turn to page 2 Turn to back page bringing it to the brink of extinction? Will there be PHOTOGRAPHERS SNAP BACK funding or incentives for start-ups to replace them, How they defend press and how would they be freedom on the streets financed? PAGES 4-5 JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK ● What kind of media ADS IN THE PROGRAMMES regulation will remain? Will Product placement is coming to commercial TV commercial broadcasting be PAGE 6 released from its public obligations? Will there still be Ofcom, or something worse? GO TO WWW.CPBF.ORG.UK FOR ALL CAMPAIGN NEWS FREE Press January-February 2010 1 fp174:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 17/02/2010 20:02 Page 2 Ownership ELECTION CAMPAIGN From page one economic instability. The weak perform- ance of the UK economy has rocked media companies and decimated their workforces. What will be the economic climate for new media? Things could get Big media even worse. A few more questions: PARTIAL OR IMPARTIAL NEWS The Conservatives have plans to relax the long-standing statutory requirement that UK broadcast news must be impar- tial. John Ryley, the head of Sky News – controlled by David Cameron’s best friends in the Murdoch empire – said just want to recently: “I no longer want to be subject- ed to the controlling hand of a regulator armed with a set of codes and sanc- tions.” Can Fox News UK be on the way? THE LOCAL NEWS CONSORTIA As ITV jettisons its public service obli- gation to provide local and regional news there is a government programme to replace it – and supplement the dwin- get bigger dling service from the press – with regional multi-media Independently Financed News Consortia (IFNCs). At times of economic crisis the response Three pilots are planned but shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has con- of media companies is predictable, firmed they would be stopped; he wants the sector left to the market. How will says GRANVILLE WILLIAMS. It’s ‘cut local and regional news continue to thrive? back and merge’ – and get rid of any THE FUTURE OF ITN regulations that stand in their way ITN provides the news for ITV and C4 (Sky provides the news for C5). The cur- e have been given it pendent journalism sustained through rent contract with ITV expires in 2012. straight: government should commercial activity and argued “the Will ITN survive as a provider of high- relax rules on media own- only reliable, durable, and perpetual quality national and international news, ership, limit their funding guarantor of independence is profit”. in vital competition with the BBC? and restrict new services by Did he have Fox News in mind? Wpublic service broadcasters, and tear In fact James Murdoch’s BSkyB is REGULATION OF THE MEDIA up tiresome restrictive regulations. the largest TV company in Europe; the How can the Press Complaints Remember James Murdoch’s tirade parent News Corporation has annual Commission, a creature of the national against the BBC, Ofcom, impartiality revenues of $30 billion (with this press, be made effective and independ- in broadcast news and other targets in year’s results likely to be boosted by ent? The Conservatives want to rein his speech to the Edinburgh the relentless cross-promotion in back Ofcom – the Murdochs don’t like it Television Festival in August 2009? Murdoch media of the film Avatar, – but what sort of body might regulate He talked of “a land-grab, pure and produced by its film company, 20th our converged communications media? simple, going on – and in the interests Century Fox). Who’s the behemoth of a free society it should be sternly now? PRESS FREEDOM resisted. The land grab is spearhead- Just before Christmas the pace of The libel laws are under attack as sel- ed by the BBC. The scale and scope of consolidation quickened, with the dom before, with growth of libel tourism its current activities and future ambi- Disney Company’s acquisition of in London and the gross profiteering of tions is chilling”. Marvel Entertainment Inc, and law firms that benefit from it. The gov- He contrasted the BBC’s “state- Comcast, the largest American cable ernment wants to cut them back, but sponsored journalism” with inde- services provider, taking control of what will happen after the election? NBC, acquiring a 51 per cent stake from its existing owner, General The CPBF Media Manifesto will be BSkyB is the largest TV Electric. It means that the production aimed at raising awareness of the and distribution of TV and films to importance of the media as an election company in Europe; the parent millions of homes will be controlled issue. When it comes out in March it by one company. will be circulated around the mem- News Corporation has annual In the UK we have seen a push by bers, groups and unions in the CPBF. It media groups to revise ownership will be online and supporters should revenues of $30 billion. rules and jettison restrictive regula- spread it and get the debates going far tion. In difficult economic times, local and wide. Who’s the behemoth now? and regional newspaper groups, ITV 2 January-February 2010 FREE Press fp174:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 17/02/2010 20:02 Page 3 Ownership and local radio stations all argue that current affairs rooted within Granada which excited, amused, the solution was consolidation and an communities – you can see with your challenged and inspired. From the end to regulation. own eyes. 1990s you witness a terrible falling off A prominent proponent of this view Go and visit the exhibition in talent, innovation and memorable is the media analyst Claire Enders, Manchester: Television and The City: programmes as a distinctive broad- who wrote in the January issue of Ghosts of Winter Hill on at Urbis caster is collapsed into the single ITV Wired magazine: “Now is the time to Manchester until April 2010; Winter brand. That’s media consolidation for ditch regulation of the broadcasting Hill is a transmitter for the Granada you. sector altogether ... We should allow region in Lancashire. market forces to act unimpeded with- Arranged in a series of period sit- Granville Williams is a former editor in the commercial sector, and leave ting rooms you can watch extracts of Free Press and author of Britain’s public service broadcasting to the from a stream of programming by Media: How They Are Related BBC”. The CPBF take a very different view. Positive regulation protects viewers and listeners from a tide of commercialism. Media consolidation, News Corp has to pay up whether in ITV or regional newspapers, has served viewers and upert Murdoch’s perpetual aggres- rival company, Valassis, which in readers badly. sive strategy for his News 2006 launched a legal action, accusing As groups like Johnston Press, RCorporation to dominate all its NA of anticompetitive behaviour. Newsquest and Trinity Mirror markets has suffered a couple of seri- Now News Corporation has acquired more and more newspapers ous setbacks around legal cases in the announced it will pay $500 million to the resources which should have been UK and US. Valassis. “It has become evident to our invested in journalism were diverted In Britain, BSkyB has thrown in the legal advisors from pre-trial proceed- in the good times to boost shareholder towel after a two-year battle to prevent ings over the past couple of weeks that profits. the forced sale of part of its share in significant risks were developing in And what about ITV? The new ITV ITV.