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first person
“As a former
film producer,
I’m only too
aware of
how easily
visual images
can be
manipulated
to serve
par ticular
ends.”
Within months of the Labour Party winning the 1997 General Election I honest- ly believed that I’d left the media and communications industry behind me for good.
But, as a result of an extraordi- nary series of coincidences I found myself, in the spring of 2002, chairing a Joint Parliamentary Committee exam- ining the Government’s Draft Communications Bill.
As I believe is increasingly self- evident, the way in which the Communications industry is regu- lated has significant conse- quences to every one of us as citizens, in fact for our whole future as participants in an active, plural democracy.
In case this sounds a little melodramatic, I should perhaps spell out in a little more detail exactly what I mean.
Television, Radio and the Press matter. It’s no coincidence that control of a broadcasting station is usually the first target of any self- respecting military coup. It is these media that shape the way we understand and interpret the world.
Properly regulated they should be capable of safeguarding that “plurality of public voice” which is one of the cornerstones of a healthy democracy, ensuring that all of a nation’s citizens are promptly, accurately and impar- tially informed.
In the manner of few other institutions, once trusted and respected, the media are, or ought to be, part of the social glue which helps bind nations and communities together.
And as we have been recent- ly vividly reminded – retaining
4
one man’s stand
Lord Puttnam argues that the ‘public interest’ demands ‘thoughtful and firm’ media regulation
that trust is everything.
But with the advent of satel-
lites, the internet and other forms of electronic delivery, the regula- tion of communications has unquestionably become much, much more complex. And it was this complexity that the Government sought to get to grips with when it set out its origi-
nal proposals for a Communications Bill.
The Government’s starting position was based on a belief that deregulating the media would have, at worst, a neutral impact on our democracy – and that at best it would clear the way for massive new investment by a generation of media moguls
(Photo by Cornel Lucas)