Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Draft Bill postpones media regulation until 2003

The Queen's Speech: Media controls

David Lister
Thursday 21 June 2001 00:00 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

The announcement of a draft Bill on the communications industry represents a postponement of long-awaited changes to media regulation.

The announcement of a draft Bill on the communications industry represents a postponement of long-awaited changes to media regulation.

The draft communications Bill will in effect be a big consultation document that the media industry will mull over for three months. It will feature again in the Queen's Speech next year, and become law in 2003. The Government claims that is in line with a manifesto commitment to have a new regulatory body, Ofcom, operational by 2003.

But the move to set up Ofcom ­ to police the commercial companies but not the BBC, which will stay under the control of its board of governors ­ will go ahead with a special Bill bringing it into existence. It will not, though, be doing any regulating until the end of 2003.

The delay has disappointed the two big ITV companies, Granada and Carlton, which have been forced to put their £10bn merger on hold. It also stops leading independent radio companies from rationalising.

But, with four new ministers at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and the Government not eager to grapple with the thorny issue of media ownership, stalling comes as no great surprise. The larger draft Bill, when published, will force a debate on rules for the ownership of newspapers, television stations and radio networks.

Under current rules, a national newspaper owner cannot own more than 20 per cent of a terrestrial television company. There has been speculation that the Government is pussyfooting so as not to come into conflict with Rupert Murdoch. But this was firmly denied by the DCMS yesterday.

A spokesman said: "This is about reforming the regime as a whole for the benefit of society as a whole. Personalising it is ridiculous."

Ralph Bernard, the chief executive of GWR, a leading commercial radio company, gave a guarded welcome to the Queen's Speech, saying: "The reference to the Bill came fairly late in the speech, which implies we've slipped down the legislative timetable. However, that will allow a little more time to get the draft absolutely right, to achieve the objectives Her Majesty mentioned ­ encouraging enterprise, strengthening competition laws and safeguarding consumers."

The five communications regulators that will form Ofcom welcomed the announcement in the Queen's Speech that a full draft of the Communications Bill will be published in the current parliamentary session.

The chief executives of the five regulators ­ Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, the Radiocommunications Agency, the Radio Authority and Oftel ­ have appointed Towers Perrin, one of the world's biggest management consulting firms, to map the process for setting up the new regulator.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in