Communications Bill And International Development And Environment Coverage

EDM number 299 in 2002-03, proposed by Tony Baldry on 05/12/2002.

That this House notes that the Government has repeatedly promised to 'protect the interests of citizens and consumers' and has recognised that the 'two are not the same' within the Communications Bill, but that the Bill contains no mention of citizens' interests and no duty on the new regulator, OFCOM, to protect them in relation to the public service broadcasting requirements which include coverage of international development and environment issues; calls on the Government to ensure that OFCOM has a clear general duty to protect and promote the interests of citizens and that a responsibility to regulate public service broadcasting 'with the purpose of strengthening it' is placed explicitly with OFCOM's Content Board; and further calls on the Government to make sure that ITV's remit is strengthened to ensure that it provides a full range of public service programming, not just entertainment and news; and to remove any exemption from penalties for commercial TV channels which fail in their public service obligations, including coverage of international development and environment issues.

This motion has been signed by a total of 118 MPs.