by Barry White The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom which, for many years has campaigned for independent and effective press self-regulation, has welcomed today’s decision by the Press Recognition Panel, to recognise IMPRESS application for recognition under the Royal Charter. Meeting today in west London, the Panel set up under the provisions of the Royal … [Read more...]
URGENT: Tweet your MP – BBC charter needs significant amendments
The new draft BBC charter is being discussed in Parliament TOMORROW Oct 18th so please tweet your MPs NOW and get them turn up to the debate and speak out to protect the independence and public service nature of the BBC. For full details of the amendments the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom deems necessary to protect the independent and public service nature of … [Read more...]
Support the Newsquest strikers: defend local news
by NUJ news release Today (13 October) is the first day of a week-long strike organised by NUJ members working for Newsquest South London. The strike is in response to devastating cuts proposals - Newsquest has put its entire south London newsroom on notice of redundancy, bar the managing editor and the web editor. The company want to make these job cuts by mid-October. They … [Read more...]
Murdoch takes over Wireless Group: BBC losing millions
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is on the move again by completing a £220m deal buying Wireless Group bringing Talksport (with 3m listener a week) and Virgin Radio under his control. The Group which owns The Sun, Times and Sunday Times via News IUK also has a 40% stake in the broadcaster Sky. More at: … [Read more...]
CPBF says that draft Charter opens the way to privatisation of public service broadcasting by stealth
by Tom O'Malley CPBF The Draft Royal Charter announced today (15 September) in Parliament, will diminish the role of the BBC as a public service broadcaster, undermine its production base and weaken its position as the provider of diverse, challenging, and high quality programming. The Draft Charter contains three, key proposals: · Placing responsibility for regulating … [Read more...]
News International dispute: Wapping & Kinning Park re-visited
by Alan Richardson In January 1986, a momentous year-long industrial dispute began when Rupert Murdoch, owner of four of Britain’s leading newspapers The Sun, News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times, moved production from Fleet Street to a secretly equipped and heavily guarded plant at Wapping, in east London. At the same time a new plant was secretly developed at … [Read more...]
Orgreave Campaign demands independent inquiry
by OTJC news release Today's Times carried a front-page report saying that an official inquiry into the Battle at Orgreave is set to be announced. The report went on to say that the eventual format of the report “may disappoint campaigners who have called for a full public inquiry.” The detailed information in theTimes report, citing “Whitehall sources”, suggests it was … [Read more...]
Hall calls off merger of news services but BBC Monitoring face big cuts
After a campaign run by the media unions and others, the BBC has announced that its News Channel and World News will remain as separate channels. The news was welcomed by the NUJ who had argued that the two offered very different services and were important and popular in their own right. Tony Hall BBC director general told staff that the News Channel would not be closed or … [Read more...]
Culture, Media and Sport Committee Report on BBC a ‘missed opportunity’ says the CPBF
by CPBF news release The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF) believes that the recommendations in today’s report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee (CMS) on the BBC White Paper (.pdf) fail to point out the dangers in the Government's White Paper. The Report accepts that the BBC should be regulated by Ofcom (p.17). But by making Ofcom the regulator, … [Read more...]
BBC ‘Showed clear bias’ against Jeremy Corbyn in leadership crisis, research shows
by MRC News Release The online and television media showed “clear and consistent bias” against Jeremy Corbyn at the start of the Labour leadership coup, according to new research, which also accuses the BBC of giving twice as much airtime to Corbyn’s critics than to his supporters on some programmes during the crisis. The exclusive study from The Media Reform Coalition and … [Read more...]