Media Ownership

Lord Roberts of Conwy Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd May 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

The noble Baroness, I know, has raised this concern before, and it is a valid one. It will be part of the consideration. I am not trying to put off giving an answer on this. It is one of the things that will certainly be taken into account in the light of the Leveson report and the Ofcom report which is due next month. We then need to look holistically at how to cope with these issues.

[Lord Roberts of Conwy]

My Lords, do the Government have any plans to extend this review beyond media ownership to the BBC, and particularly to its rules on political impartiality?

[Baroness Garden of Frognal]

My Lords, my understanding is that this particular review is contained within the media that have been the matter of debate for so long. The BBC has its own regulations which are constantly scrutinised. For the moment the review relates mainly to the printed media but obviously it could apply to multimedia as well.