Jowell Admits Plurality Test Improved Communications Bill
Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has admitted that Lord Puttnam’s last minute plurality test amendment to the Communications Bill helped to improve the recently passed legislation (see Parliament Finally Green Lights Communications Act).
The Government was forced to accept the eleventh hour proposal to give Ofcom the power to investigate major cross-media mergers after a group of rebel peers threatened to vote down the Bill unless plans to allow large newspaper groups to buy Channel Five were amended (see Government Ends Media Ownership Deadlock).
However, writing in the FT’s Creative Business supplement today, Jowell conceded: “Although it was added towards the end of the Parliamentary stages, I believe that a plurality test that allows ministerial intervention, on advice from Ofcom, the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission where public interest concerns are raised, only serves to strengthen the Act.”
She insisted that the basic principles of the Bill, liberalisation to promote competition and powers to uphold the highest standards of content (see
Jowell emphasised that Ofcom would not interfere in operations of the market unless there was a clear public interest, but welcomed the fact that the new super-regulator would be “tooled up” to deal with the changes the new legislation will bring.
She also revealed that the revised wording of Ofcom’s principle duty to promote the interests of citizens and consumers in parity, which has been criticised by the regulator’s chairman Stephen Carter (see Carter Blasts Risky Amendments To Communications Bill), was agreed only 19 hours before the Bill passed onto the stature books.
Jowell defined the Communications Act as the first stage in a greater project, which will also see a comprehensive review of the BBC’s charter (see
DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk
Recent Related Stories from NewsLine Call For Ban On Alcohol Advertising Meets Stiff Opposition Plans To Ban Sexist Advertising Are Condemned European Commission Reinforces Need For Ban On Spam
Subscribers can access ten years of NewsLine articles by clicking the Search button to the left