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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am grateful for that contribution from my noble friend Lord Gordon. I found an element of contradiction in the contribution put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Howard. He suggested that the news consortia should have freedom for access to other resources. No one is saying anything about that. We are merely indicating that where we are able to identify that local and regional news could not be obtained through the marketplace, here is a structure to enable that to occur. I do not understand how, therefore, he can suggest that Amendment 233E should be commended to the Committee. It would prevent innovation. It is not good for news providers or audiences if there is no scope for development. We are merely recognising the importance of news provision online and the possible breadth of development. The noble Lord seems to indicate that that should be inhibited, yet he is concerned about public money and support. We believe that the need to find models that continue to reach audiences and more opportunities to provide content relevant to local people, including user-generated content and hyper-local use, has substantial possibilities. However, there has to be a structure that makes it possible. If we accepted Amendment 233E, there would be a great inhibition on that. On Amendment 233H, the funding used to sustain plurality in local and regional news should also have the wider benefit of helping high-quality independent journalism to thrive and keep citizens informed. That is why the subsection talks about supporting and promoting the provision of news. Let us make no bones about it: this is also about training and the development of skills. When local and regional news sources flourished rather more than they do now and were not under quite the threat and limitations of the present time, our most talented reporters, investigators and presenters cut their teeth on them. Indeed, the noble Lord, Lord Howard, will know only too well from his own perspective that a large number of the Lobby correspondents at the other end—we all have reservations about Lobby correspondents on occasion and I cannot pretend that I agree with every one of their contributions and interpretations—came up through local and regional newspapers and news provisions to reach the dizzy heights of being a Lobby correspondent here. All news is demanding in terms of accuracy and objectivity, but by definition political news and commenting on political events make demands all of their own when it comes to objectivity and standards. We have no doubt that there will be a need to nurture journalistic activity and to develop multimedia skills in circumstances where the market is not going to sustain the level of training and development that has obtained in the past. We also know the reasons and the enormous problems in that regard. So while I hear what the noble Lord says about his anxieties, I always share in his optimism about what can be achieved if there is a will and a structure that engages enterprise, skill and talent. That is what we are trying to do here and I am afraid that his amendment would limit it. I hope that he will consider withdrawing it.