Leveson Report: Media Plurality

Lord Stevenson of Balmacara Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd May 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Stevenson of Balmacara]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, for securing this debate and I thank all noble Lords for their contributions. There has been a reasonable degree of unanimity around what we have been discussing, which is all to the good and plays to the spirit of the royal charter debates that we had. We therefore have something that we should continue to build on.

When introducing his speech, the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, gave us a good and quick tour d’horizon of how we got to where we are, which echoed a lot of what I have thought about the issue. He has also picked up an important point that there a lacuna in the public’s understanding and awareness of why media plurality is so important and how we need to deal with it. I was also struck by the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, and his frustration at being isolated and not having sufficient guidance about where the Government stood on this. He likened it to the play, “Waiting for Godot”. I think that it is more like “The Maltese Falcon”. I smell a McGuffin in the air; I am not sure what it is, but that is the point of McGuffins—we do not know what they are. They certainly take your eye off where the action is and leave you grasping for how events turn out. I suspect that we are in that sort of mode where there is something happening but, rather like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern —to change my metaphor again—it is all happening just a bit offstage and we are not part of it.

I have three important things to say—well, they are important to me and I hope that they are to those who are listening. First, if one reads the whole of Leveson, which I have, it is a very rich resource for those interested in this area, and not all of it is ever quoted or brought out. The section on plurality, as my noble friend Lord Whitty said, it is not as long or extensive as some of the other stuff, but it is very important. Leveson analyses it out in a way that I have never seen before, but it is worth reflecting on why we care so much about plurality. It is not because plurality is not important but because it is only a surrogate for what I think is at the heart of the debate, which is trying to ensure that the media are indeed of central importance for a healthy and well informed democracy. Therefore, control of the media should not be concentrated in too few hands. That is a slightly different way from how many people, particularly media commentators, have done it. We have tended to rush to a view and have brought up measurement schemes and other things around what we can find out about plurality as an issue in itself. In fact, it is only a surrogate for what we are trying to get at, which is about a different discourse and a different culture around the engagement of those people with our democracy.

In a sense, the Communications Act 2003, for which my party was responsible, has very good measures on plurality. It says that there are two needs in any assessment of this: a sufficient plurality of views in newspapers in each market for newspapers; and, changing slightly, a need for sufficient plurality of persons with control of the media enterprises serving every audience in the UK. We can see why it is important but we must bear in mind that it is only a surrogate.

My second point is that we have tended to use as the measuring medium news and current affairs when considering plurality. Others have mentioned this before but increasingly, particularly in a multimedia- and internet-based society, we have to think of many more things. YouTube is not news and current affairs but that is where most people now gather information and ideas. If we are looking at news and current affairs only in a very traditional sense, we may be led astray.

My third point is on the purpose of this debate, and I hope that the focus of the Minister when he responds will be on what Leveson actually recommended. Nobody has referred to that. We have existing regulation in place, much of which Leveson regards as being satisfactory. There are only a few areas where he thinks that there should be change. It is about trying to bridge the gap between where the noble Lord, Lord Inglewood, is and wants to be, where my noble friend Lord Whitty would like to be by the Summer Recess, and where the Minister probably is—I hope that he is running fast to catch up. The gap is not that big. We are not asking for a huge amount.

I go back to the point about democracy: we must be clear about what we are looking at. Let us keep that under review because in a changing world and a changing environment, it is not necessarily sufficient to concentrate only on news and current affairs. Secondly and obviously, we must now begin to measure and to include online publications in any market assessment for consideration of plurality. Much more work should be done on the theory of how media priority should be measured. That point has been touched on several times in the debate. It is not easy and can be very complicated. I do not think it is as simple as the noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, was trying to suggest. There has to be more to it, as I have tried to say in my argument.

The question of whether or not one can rely on competition law has been raised. Leveson says that,

“the levels of influence that would give rise to concerns in relation to plurality must be lower, and probably considerably lower, than the levels of concentration that would give rise to competition concerns”.

That is an important point. He thinks that the levels must be reduced for the media. The Government should consider whether periodic plurality reviews should take place. We agree with that and I think some are already happening. The final points that Leveson makes are about who takes the final decision. We did not touch on that but I think it is important because it was raised—in spades—in terms of the BSkyB issues. The Secretary of State should remain responsible for public interest decisions.

There is not much to change; much of that is in place. It would not take much for the Minister to convince us that action has been taken and I look forward to hearing from him.