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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, given the breadth of the issues the Minister is being required to address and the length of the speakers list, I will restrict myself to focusing on the Digital Economy Bill and, within that, its possible effects, intended and unintended, on the future of public service broadcasting. At the outset, I should declare an interest as deputy chairman of Channel 4, one of the likely beneficiaries of the proposed legislation, and also as president of the Film Distributors’ Association, which has argued strongly for effective measures to curb the theft of commercially financed intellectual property. It seems appropriate at this point to commend my noble friend Lord Carter of Barnes, who is not with us this evening, for his work on the Digital Britain report, the recommendations of which paved the way for the legislation that will reach this House next week. His report offered a powerful and incisive analysis of the potential of the digital economy, and set out what I felt to be a clear direction of travel, which is now being acted upon. As the former chairman of the joint scrutiny committee for the 2002 Communications Bill, I am particularly pleased that the Government are now bringing forward legislation which refreshes and updates a number of Ofcom’s duties. In particular, I point to the proposal in the Bill that Ofcom must have regard to the need, ""to promote appropriate levels of investment in public service media content"." I am keenly aware that Ofcom’s own research shows that there has been a decline in overall levels of public service content over the past few years as audiences have fragmented and advertising revenues, in particular, have declined. Noble Lords from all sides of the House argued successfully during the passage of the 2002 Bill that Ofcom should have a duty towards citizens, not just consumers. For that reason, I am especially pleased that the new draft Bill explicitly recognises that Ofcom should maintain a close watching brief on levels of investment in public service content. While speaking of Ofcom, there is one important point which should not be overlooked. That is the fact that despite a lot of self-serving huffing and puffing from a variety of quarters, Ofcom is, in itself, a real success story. I travel a great deal and I can say quite unequivocally that Ofcom is increasingly becoming the gold standard by which media and telecoms regulation is being judged around the world. Unfortunately, as with that other gold standard, the BBC, its role and importance to civil society are hopelessly underappreciated by commentators who should, and in many cases do, know better. Unfortunately, as the House knows to its cost, the current media fashion is never to let the facts, let alone the broad truth, get in the way of a good, preferably controversial story. Plurality must continue to be at the heart of our broadcasting and media industries in a digital world. And a plurality of information sources is essential to maintaining a genuinely informed democracy. To achieve this, the output of the BBC needs to be complemented by a range of other providers of public service content; and in particular by a strong, well financed Channel 4 that is able to continue to play to its strengths by investing in news, film and in its growing commitment to online educational content. So I am particularly pleased that the updated remit in the Bill sets out in the clearest possible terms what is expected of us and sets us on a path to build on our traditional strengths and contribute to the ambitions for our shared digital figure as set out in the Government’s proposals. The remarkable depth of creative talent in this country is both the cause and the consequence of the very high levels of investment that we make in original content. The Digital Economy Bill puts in place a framework which will help to ensure that these levels of investment remain appropriate to the needs of future audiences. I also stress the continuing importance of news and current affairs in our remit because there continues to be a very strong case for a regulatory framework which provides for different sources of impartial news. The market alone, sadly, cannot be relied on to deliver this. Were we to be foolish enough to undermine, let alone sacrifice, the twin pillars of plurality and impartiality, we could quickly find ourselves facing the British equivalent of what was brilliantly described by the journalist Tom Friedman writing in last Sunday’s New York Times as a, ""TV culture [which] encourages shouting and segregating people into their own political echo chambers"." Since much of our press have opted increasingly to resemble that political echo chamber, not least in their collective and entirely self-serving attacks on public service broadcasters, and by extension the civic values that underpin them, there is a stronger than ever need for plurality and impartiality to be embedded in our broadcasting ecology. During the passage of the Bill, I hope to attract support from all sides of the House in exploring means by which our traditional commitment to impartiality in broadcast newsgathering can be further safeguarded in legislation. I am personally concerned that at present it is far too narrowly defined. My intention is to achieve a legislative environment in which it would require significant changes in legislation in order to permit the type of news service best exemplified by Fox News in the United States. In my judgment, that is not a direction any nation wishing to embed the values of plural democracy can ever afford even to contemplate. I also add a broad welcome to the proposals that throw a spanner in the proliferation of online piracy. As a rights-holder, I have every interest in seeing piracy dealt with firmly, effectively and proportionately. It is my hope that the increasing sophistication of digital technologies can be used to help in the fight against piracy, but clearly there is a need for a legislative backstop. Finally, I am conscious that the Bill is called the Digital Economy Bill. I am a passionate believer in the power of digital technologies to transform not just our economy but the social and cultural fabric of this nation and indeed the way in which we teach and learn. I hope that in the debates surrounding the Bill we will not lose sight of the fact that its impact is likely to extend far beyond purely economic concerns. In fact, it has the potential to help the positive transformation of just about every aspect of our lives in the early 21st century.