Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF)
for diverse, democratic and accountable media
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
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...]
by Barry White The failure of the coup launched by a faction of the military on 15 July has resulted in a massive purge by the Erdogan's government, while the reckless military adventurism has weakened, possibly fatally, what was left of the country's democratic framework. In addition it left more than 200 dead and over 1,500 injured, mostly civilians who went onto the … [Read more...]
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...]