Puttnam Plan Could End Media Ownership Deadlock
The deadlock over the Government’s plans to relax the media ownership regulations could be eased after influential Labour peer, Lord Puttnam, put forward a compromise to impose a special public interest test on large media groups wanting to buy Five.
In their current form, proposals in the Communications Bill, which is now at its committee stage in the House of Lords, would clear the way for large newspaper groups to take over Five and non-EU investors to own major UK broadcasting assets – such as ITV (see Draft Communications Bill Relaxes Cross Media Rules).
The plans have met with fierce criticism from a group of rebel peers, who under the leadership of Lord Puttnam, have threatened to vote the Bill down unless the Government rethinks the clause, which would effectively allow Rupert Murdoch to extend his media empire into UK terrestrial TV (see Puttnam Threatens To Quash Communications Bill).
Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has insisted that she will not to give in to rebel peers threatening to quash almost three years of policy making (see Jowell Hints At New Laws If Murdoch Moves On Five) and last night Lord Puttnam reportedly suggested a compromise that would see a public interest test applied to all major cross media acquisitions, which are currently only subject to the scrutiny of the competition laws.
According to reports in today’s newspapers, the new test would apply to large companies wanting to increase their interests in other areas of media through the acquisition of newspaper, radio or television assets.
It is understood that the public interest tests would be carried out by new super-regulator, Ofcom, to examine the impact of deals on the plurality of media voices and owners. Controversial cases could then be passed on to the Competition Commission or the Office of Fair Trading for further scrutiny.
Lord Puttnam has expressed deep concern that the relaxation of the media ownership rules will allow Rupert Murdoch to achieve “unprecedented dominance” of UK broadcasting in the newly deregulated landscape. However, he is understood to be satisfied that the public interest test would limit the amount of disruption to the media ecology.
Reports suggest that he would be willing to drop his opposition to the Bill, if the Government, which is keen to see the proposals become legislation by the end of this parliamentary session, accepts his proposal.
DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk
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