Tomorrow, the media and telecoms regulator, Ofcom is set to publish a draft of its new, single programme code for all British broadcasters.
It is hoped that the new report will put an end to conflicting rights on issues such as privacy, fair treatment and freedom of expression, with competing regulators covering the same pitch. However, it is not known how the report will influence the way the media operates until the final version is issued.
The situation of more than one regulator covering the same content regulation came about in the 1990s when the Thatcher government created a second tier. In addition to the BBC governors and the Independent Television Commission, it set up two more regulators who then morphed into one -The Broadcasting Standards Commission. There are now huge problems with inconsistent adjudication on complaints.
Earlier this year, broadcasters drew up their own ideal code to show Ofcom what they thought would work, as trying to follow two sets of guidelines made abiding by the rules a lottery.
It was suggested a simpler, shorter code which focused on the principles the regulator wanted observed rather than detailed advice on how programme makers should behave, would be the best approach.
Writing for the Financial Times, Richard Tait, director at the Centre for Journalism Studies at Cardiff University said: “They [the broadcasters] are likely to be quite pleased by much of what they see tomorrow.”
The code, which is only 35 pages long, is expected to lay out key principles, rules and guidelines but will not try to tell the programme makers how to do their job. Decisions will be left up to editorial and producer discretion, where as currently, all secret filming has to be approved by the broadcaster’s top editorial executives.
Tait said that when the subject matter is relating to taste and decency, now renamed ‘harm and offence’, there is likely to be a rather different approach, with wide variations in what is allowed depending on the time of day, the nature of the channel and who is watching.
Ofcom has detailed proposals for strengthening the protection of children and young people watching before the 9.00 pm watershed, which could lead to a tougher line on violence in early evening programming such as the soaps.
Ofcom is not expected to give broadcasters what they way on arguments over privacy. Although freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, the UK courts have so far come down more strongly on the side of the right to privacy than the right to know, and Ofcom is likely to be cautious about appearing to be moving in a different direction from the judges.
Tait concluded his report by saying: “Ofcom believes its hands-off approach is the best way to regulate an increasingly diverse broadcasting landscape – but it will probably take a few test cases for the broadcasters to discover how light its touch will be when the going gets tough, as it always does.”
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