---

Digital Economy Bill [HL]

May I pick up what the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, has said about impartiality? I do not want to pre-empt Amendments 234 and 235 in my name and that of my noble friend Lord Bragg. This is a crucial issue and I am seeking clarification from the noble Lord, Lord Howard. When he talks about the possibility of Ofcom’s obligations being restricted to public service broadcasters, is he suggesting—I am sure he is not and certainly hope he is not—that Ofcom’s obligations in respect of the impartiality of news broadcasts in this country should cease to range right across the whole of the broadcast media? One of the pivotal components of civil society in this country is that we have impartial broadcast news. I have spent a huge amount of my working life in the United States and no one in this Chamber would wish this country to go down the road which the Americans have opted for, irrespective of changes in technology. The point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, is very important. In the bids for the Cumbria and North East television area there are two prime bidders: one is led by ITN, which has impartiality in its DNA—one does not have to remind ITN about the importance of impartiality; and the other is the Cumberland Newspaper Group which is a classic crusading newspaper group that does not have impartiality in its DNA. It is absolutely imperative that Ofcom has the right to insist, should the Cumberland Newspaper Group be successful, that it obligates itself to exactly the same forms of broadcast impartiality which traditionally have been one of the hallmarks and great successes of our British media ecology. Perhaps the noble Lord could clarify that he is not for one moment suggesting that we move away from impartiality of news provision in all broadcast media.