Author Archives: Caoimh McCarthy

Cameron calls for restraints on BBC’s commercial operations, supports local media

At the Annual Newspaper Conference Lunch on Tuesday David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party was quick to criticise the ‘crushing’ power of the BBC.

The comments were made at the annual Newspaper Conference lunch, reported on the Newspaper Society’s website.

Addressing members of the Newspaper Conference, a body administrated by the Newspaper Society, made up of 20 regional press journalists and based in Westminster, Cameron insisted further restraints should be put on the BBC’s commercial operations.

“They [the BBC] have got to bear in mind that when they enter new markets, they are often in danger of crushing with the great big foot of the BBC enterprise, entrepreneurship and risk and capital that other organisations have put into those areas,” he said.

“Things like what they have been doing in education, some of the things they’ve been doing [sic] online, their plans for video on demand, and some of what they’ve been doing in competition with local newspapers, those are the things where they should be restrained,” said the Conservative leader

The BBC’s regulatory body, the BBC Trust also came under fire:

“I’d also like to see them [the BBC] regulated more in the way of other commercial television companies. I know the BBC Trust is an improvement on the old form of government but to me independent regulation has got to be independent.

“I still don’t really understand how you can partly be regulated by the BBC Trust, which is you, and partly by Ofcom. It doesn’t make sense.”

Speaking to the Newspaper Conference members, Cameron praised regional newspapers referring to them as being ‘valuable in terms of the health of a combative democracy’.

Arrest of Ingush news website owner was ‘illegal’, says court

A court in Nazran, the old capital of the Russian republic of Ingushetia, has declared the arrest of opposition website owner, Magomed Yevloyev, as illegal, according to the Yevloyev family lawyer Mussa Pliyev.

Yevloyev, the owner of Ingush Independent news website Ingushetiyra.ru, was shot dead in police custody on August 31 2008.

The court’s declaration was reported on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

“This is a first step towards recognising the political nature of the behaviour of the Ingush security forces in this case. We hope that a thorough and impartial investigation will soon be carried out into the exact circumstances of Yevloyev’s death,” said the RSF statement.