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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

I again declare my interest—as I think I am supposed to do every time now—as chairman of the Press Complaints Commission. I want to refer to Amendment 31 regarding unintended consequences that may arise, from what I think is a well-meaning clause, on public service broadcasting and other media services. My concern relates entirely to the question of impartiality. Again, this is something that I touched on at Second Reading. We must not lose sight of the fact that the word "broadcast" is almost an anachronism and that within a few years there will be convergence. No one yet has talked about that but we have to keep it in mind throughout the passage of the Bill. As chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, my concern is that at the moment the commission regulates the press which is, at its very foundation, allowed to be partial. It exists for freedom of expression, something for which it has fought valiantly over the years. It must be absolutely clear that Ofcom will not extend its powers, either inadvertently or otherwise or through other regulations which may come as a result of another Clause—I think Clause 17—so that it is able to regulate newspapers. There is a real problem here. Public service broadcasting at the moment must be impartial and the news provided must be impartial. I am particularly thinking about IFNCs, the new regional news providers which we understand are being piloted in the near future by the Government. There is a proposal for news companies and news corporations to be involved in the provision of regional news. What would happen if, inadvertently, that news had to be impartial? We have to think about that big problem. The noble Lord, Lord Mandelson, wrote to all of us who spoke at Second Reading to reassure us that that would not be the case but I urge the Government to think carefully about how, through the passage of the Bill, we ensure that whatever the Bill says in terms of provision, the importance of impartiality in relation to public service broadcast news does not, by regulatory creep, leak out into the newspaper industry as well.