Tag Archives: media ownership

Guardian: Shadow culture secretary calls for end to politics in media takeovers

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Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has reportedly said he will consider the introduction of “new provisions in respect of media plurality” in a new Communications Bill, following calls for quasi-judicial roles to be removed from ministers in media ownership decisions.

The Guardian reports today that shadow culture minister Ivan Lewis wrote to culture secretary Jeremy Hunt earlier this year with a series of questions relating to News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB.

At the end of his letter Lewis asked the culture secretary if he would consider provisions in the new Communications Bill for the removal of politicians from having any quasi-judicial role “in relation to specific plurality and cross media ownership decisions”.

In a response, which appears to have been posted on Scribd by the Guardian, Hunt reportedly says he will be considering new provisions.

I will be publishing a green paper by the end of the year and seeking views this year in order to scope what it should include.

Following the green paper consultation we will look to make necessary changes as soon as practicable; not everything will necessarily require primary legislation and we are open to looking at what can be done more quickly where appropriate.

The correspondence comes as News Corp’s bid for full ownership of BSkyB is considered, following the acceptance by Hunt of proposals put forward by News Corp in response to concerns raised over media plurality.

This included the spinning-off of Sky News under a separate publicly limited company called Newco.

The Guardian says a decision on the deal is expected “possible as early as next week”.

State-owned media to go on sale in Russia

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Newspapers, television channels and radio stations owned by members of the Russian government will be put up for sale, according to a post on the Shaping the Future of the Newspaper blog.

The SFN blog report, which is based on articles by Polit.ru and Trud.ru, says the announcement followed comments by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that public figures “should not be the owners of ‘factories, newspapers, steamships”.

He said official bodies should only be involved with fields that encourage quality performance of duties, suggesting that all other industries should be privatised.

News Corp Sky bid: Church of England weighs in

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Following Ofcom’s publication of an invitation earlier this month for submissions in relation to News Corporation’s bid for the remaining share of BSkyB that it doesn’t already own, the Church of England has reportedly made its concerns known this week.

According to the Guardian, the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, who is also the lead media spokesman for the church, said in a submission to Ofcom that if the bid were accepted it would place News Corp in a position of dominance across two media platforms.

“A News Corporation in full control of BSkyB would combine one of the three significant suppliers of TV news (BBC, ITN and BSkyB), one of the two suppliers of radio news (BBC, BSkyB) and the group with the biggest market share of national press in the UK. It would dominate both the television and newspaper landscape.”

McCulloch said that at the very least there should be an assurance that the independence of Sky News will be preserved in any circumstance, whatever the outcome of the bid and inquiry.

In a submission from Sky itself to Ofcom, the broadcaster claimed that even if Sky News ceased to be an independent ‘voice’ from News International, its small share of viewing figures would mean those who relied on this independence would be “extremely low”.

In the light of these findings, it is relevant that Sky News’ share of national television news viewing remains small at around 7 per cent (potentially lower if viewing of smaller specialist news channels is taken into account) and alternative sources of news, in particular via the internet, have risen considerably in prominence since the CC BSkyB/ITV Report. Further, with regard to the Competition Commission’s third finding referred to in paragraph 4.14 above, even were Sky News to cease to be an independent “voice” from News International following the Transaction, the percentage of the UK population who could be said to have relied upon Sky News as such an independent “voice” (and who therefore would in practice suffer from a loss of plurality) would be extremely low.

In a report on Sky’s submission paidContent said the broadcaster is “effectively trying to limbo under a threshold for plurality, which takeover opponents would be reduced, by framing the bid in the wider context of the last decade’s ongoing internet content explosion”.

In doing so, it is also trying to get the regulator to focus on just one of the content areas in which it operates, saying: “The appropriate focus of Ofcom’s investigation is on national news, rather than the broader content genres (such as entertainment, fiction or drama) referred to in Ofcom’s Invitation to Comment.”

Telegraph: European Commission raises rights questions over News Corp Sky bid

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Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is believed to be days away from formally notifying the European Union of its interest in the remaining 60.9 per cent of BSkyB that it does not already own.

According to a report by the Telegraph, the EU has “informally questioned how News Corp will manage future rights deals if it were to fully acquire BSkyB”.

A formal investigation by the competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, will not begin until News Corp makes its notification. Rupert Murdoch, chief executive, said on 4 August that News Corp would notify the EU “very shortly” and sources have now said it is “imminent”.

In September, Journalism.co.uk reported that News Corp’s rumoured bid had led to calls on business secretary Vince Cable to issue an intervention notice in the interest of media plurality from the NUJ and founder of Enders Analysis Claire Enders.

Guardian: Murdoch’s media fightback over letter to Cable

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A letter signed by numerous media organisations including the BBC and sent to business secretary Vince Cable earlier this week, calling on him to intervene with a planned bid by Murdoch for the remainder of BSkyB, has sparked quick responses from Murdoch’s other media outlets.

According to a report by the Guardian, it was first an editorial in News International’s The Times yesterday, which claimed that BBC director general Mark Thompson had made a “serious and surprising error”.

By lending his name to the campaign to prevent News Corp from purchasing those Sky shares that it does not already own, Mr Thompson has made a serious and surprising error. He has embroiled his taxpayer-funded organisation in a political and commercial battle that it should have nothing to do with.

Then today the Sun’s columnist Kelvin MacKenzie added that Murdoch should be encouraged, not stopped.

The fact that Sky is so successful is due to his three-word mantra: invest, invest, invest. When you look at the list of business duds opposing him, what’s quite clear is they have chosen to survive by three other words: Cut, cut, cut. …It’s hard to know why Vince Cable wouldn’t nod the deal through as Rupert has always run Sky thanks to his near 40% equity ownership and the right he has to pick the chief executive.

… The reality is that Sky owns very few of the channels it broadcasts and many of the stations have minute audiences – especially compared to the state monopolists at the BBC. The issue for our nation should not be how to stop Mr Murdoch investing in Britain but how to encourage him – and many more like him.”

Ofcom considers removal of regional media ownership restriction

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Ofcom is considering a government proposal for further relaxation of regional media ownership rules, which could see the one remaining restriction removed.

According to a report by the Press Association, the regulator is considering a request by the Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt to look at the effect of removing the last restriction, which prohibits any one body from owning all of the following: local newspapers with more than a 50 per cent market share, a local radio station and the ITV licence for the area.

In its response, Ofcom said local media was facing “significant economic pressure” and removing the remaining restriction “could allow local media greater options to consolidate to respond to these pressures”.

But it added that a “serious consideration” remained that combined ownership could give too much control over the local news agenda to one person or company.

The regulator admitted “it is also worth noting that there is probably a reasonably low risk of the kind of consolidation that the remaining rule protects against actually occurring even if the rule was removed.”

Baroness Ros Scott: Should the PCC be abolished?

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Baron Ros Scott, member of the House of Lords Select Committee’s review of media ownership and the news last year, questions the existence of the Press Complaints Commission (PCC).

“Its entire existence is based on a narrow remit of dealing with complaints from individuals who have the patience (and resources) to go through their procedures. They do not attempt to deal with standards more generally, and given the enormous competitive pressure on newspapers, standards of accuracy and the need for more sensationalist stories are resulting in a dramatic decline in general standards,” she writes

Full post at this link…

NUJ jobs crisis summit round-up – ‘Murdoch and Dacre have brought us into disrepute’

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Saturday saw around 150 gathered for the National Union of Journalists’ (NUJ) job crisis summit, part of a union-wide campaign against job cuts and pay freezes in the industry.

Speaking at the summit, Flat Earth News author and journalist Nick Davies called upon journalists to be ‘whistleblowers on our own newsrooms’:

“We need to tell the public the impact of the job cuts on newsgathering,” he said in a report on the NUJ website.

“The public must know that the corporations have taken over the newsrooms and ransacked them for profit and that is why readers have lost trust in us.

“We need to improve the status of journalists. We are not trusted; we are not liked, because we are misperceived. The best known people in journalism are people like Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre, who have brought us into disrepute.”

Exposing flaws in managements’ running of newsrooms and putting state aid into the hands of journalists and not corporations would help provide a practical solution to a financial problem, he added.

The union will launch a campaign of lobbying MPs and local authorities, protests and possible industrial action, legal challenges to staff cuts and workplace issues, and a public debate of the situation.

The meeting called on the NUJ’s general secretary, Jeremy Dear, to meet with employers on a national level, and speak with ministers about media ownership regulation:

“This meeting believes the economic model practised by media employers over recent years – a sub-prime media market – is dead. It is scoops, quality editorial content, strong images and an engaged readership which will see media survive and flourish not retrenchment and soaring executive pay,” a motion ruled by the meeting said.

“This meeting further believes that light touch media regulation and the weakening of media ownership laws has led to an unhealthy consolidation of media ownership.

“Many media owners continue to show they have no coherent strategy that can secure a viable future for media in print, broadcast or online.”

Also discussed: chapels must include freelancers, casuals and contributors in activity and agreements surrounding cutbacks.

The summit also acknowledged the wider global crisis in the industry and pledged to work with both other UK industry unions, such as BECTU and UNITE, and international representatives.

Scotland on Sunday: Trinity Mirror seeks rule change to allow mergers of newspaper titles – Scotland on Sunday

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According to Terry Murden of the Scotland on Sunday, Trinity Mirror is lobbying for media ownership rules to be relaxed to allow newspaper groups to merge their regional titles.

links for 2008-07-10

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