Media: Ownership

Lord Fowler Excerpts

Thursday 11th November 2010 Lords Chamber

Asked By

[Lord Fowler]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what safeguards exist to prevent too great a concentration of media power in the United Kingdom.

[Baroness Rawlings]

My Lords, the Government believe that it is important for the media to reflect different viewpoints so as to safeguard democratic debate. In order to have a level playing field, undue concentration of media power is prevented in three main ways: first, there are statutory media ownership rules, which are enforced by Ofcom and provide absolute restrictions of ownership; secondly, mergers involving newspapers and media enterprises, like all other mergers, are subject to competition-based regulation by independent competition authorities; and, thirdly, the Secretary of State has an exceptional power to intervene in media mergers if necessary.

[Lord Fowler]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. In last week’s debate on media power, all 20 speakers on the list supported the decision to refer the News Corp attempt to take full control of BSkyB to Ofcom. Does the Minister agree that this shows the great concern that there is on this issue? Does she also agree that, in safeguarding the media in this country, it is absolutely essential to retain a strong and independent BBC?

[Baroness Rawlings]

My Lords, I am delighted that my noble friend Lord Fowler, who is always ahead of the game, had already tabled his Question before the debate last week in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam. During the debate, I set out the process for public interest investigation in respect of News Corporation’s proposed purchase of BSkyB. Clearly, there are merits in doing so again. The Secretary of State intervened in this merger last week and asked Ofcom to provide him with an initial report considering its potential impact on the public interest concern with media plurality. This came at the time of the debate. On receipt of Ofcom’s report—I wish to spell this out clearly, because it was a theme that went through the debate—the Secretary of State might need to decide whether to refer the merger to the Competition Commission for a more detailed investigation. If such a reference was made, the Competition Commission would report within 24 weeks and the Secretary of State would need to make a final decision on what action to take within 30 days.