Lord Soley
Main Page: Lord Soley (Labour - Life peer)
Baroness Rawlings
My Lords, my noble friend makes a very valid point, which I would expect from him with all his knowledge and consistent interest in broadcasting. The Question clearly addresses the next stage from his previous Question in your Lordships' House on the licence fee in October 2010. Following the phone hacking issue, he is right that plurality continues to be on the agenda. That needs to include all media and I understand his wish for more independent radio providers. Indeed, local commercial radio stations provide a wide range of national and local news—around 8 million minutes of news every year. We believe, too, that there are a number of ways of supporting such news provision and we will consider these in the forthcoming communications review.
Lord Soley
While diversity is important, does the Minister accept that the news broadcasting services of the BBC are truly remarkable and we have to protect them, not least because of the importance of the World Service? I worry when we talk about watering down the BBC's news service, which frankly is the oxygen of publicity that we need in a democracy.