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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, in proposing these possibly imperfect amendments, it may appear that my noble friend Lord Bragg and I are tilting at windmills somewhat, but to torture the metaphor, there is genuine concern that a breeze is beginning to blow that could turn into a gale. The breeze I refer to is the lazy belief that increased plurality in the provision of news and current affairs allows us the luxury of reducing our unconditional commitment to impartiality. This would, in my judgment, be a very unfortunate trade-off. In proposing the amendment I offer in support two pieces of evidence, although I am sure that my noble friend Lord Bragg will be a lot more eloquent than I. Martin Kettle, writing in the Guardian on 18 December, finished his article by saying: ""I believe the modern media now has a collective oppositional self-interest not just to particular parties or class interests, as in the past, but to the very idea of government and politics itself"." James Murdoch, whom I have a great deal of respect for, particularly on his environmental views, had this to say in the MacTaggart lecture delivered on 28 August 2009. Mr Murdoch is a very influential and powerful man, so I shall quote him at some length because I want to do him justice: ""We must have a plurality of voices and they must be independent. Yet we have a system in which state-sponsored media—the BBC in particular grow ever more dominant … Above all, we must have genuine independence in news media. Genuine independence is a rare thing. No amount of governance in the form of committees, regulators, trusts or advisory bodies is truly sufficient as a guarantor of independence. In fact, they curb speech.""On the contrary, independence is characterised by the absence of the apparatus of supervision and dependency.""Independence of faction, industrial or political.""Independence of subsidy, gift and patronage"—" is what he feels is essential. He continues: ""Independence is sustained by true accountability—the accountability owed to customers … And people value honest, fearless, and above all independent news coverage that challenges the consensus.""There is an inescapable conclusion that we must reach if we are to have a better society"." That conclusion is this: ""The only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit"." It would be impossible to sit on these Benches and agree with Mr Murdoch. The purpose of this amendment is to try to ensure that not just these Benches, but the entire Chamber is clear about its unconditional, long-term commitment to the impartiality of news and current affairs in our broadcast media. I beg to move.