Tory plans for Ofcom

OFCOM BUDGET CUTS

Maria Millar has ordered Ofcom to reduce its budget by at least 5% in real terms next year (2014-15). The total spending cap must not exceed £115.7million (even then a staggering amount by anyones standards). (letter)

Ofcom also gets a ticking off for being slow to come forward with efficiency proposals for the year after (2015-16) including shared services, and is ordered to submit proposals by the end of October.

They are also "expected" to abolish pay progression by the end of 2015-16 (March 2016 to you and me).

Finally Maria points out that all spending decisions must comply with Equalities legislation, and signs off "Best wishes, Maria Millar"

Ofcom's head Ed may yet run the Beeb

Is Ofcom boss Ed Richards' middle name "Lucky"?

The UK watchdog's supremo could yet end up running the BBC without leaving his desk at Southwark Bridge. Last year, the former Labour policy wonk – who helped create Ofcom – applied to get the top job at the Beeb, only to lose out to George Entwistle. Now it's claimed the government wants Ofcom to take over more responsibility for the corporation - and abolish the BBC Trust altogether.
...
the Sunday Times reports the Tory-led Coalition government now believes that arrangement [separate BBC and Trust] of oversight has failed. It's said that ministers feel the trust is compromised, in that it bangs the drum for the BBC with one hand, and with the other it's supposed to conduct impartial inquiries on behalf of the people who fund it with a tax on receiving live telly.

Ofcom already regulates the BBC for taste and decency; axing the trust would move the watchdog into monitoring the Beeb's editorial impartiality and its strategic direction.
The Register

The BBC is to face an early overhaul of how it is regulated in a move designed to calm mounting criticism of governance standards.

Speaking to the Royal Television Society in Cambridge on Wednesday, Maria Miller, culture secretary, said the government would give increased powers to the National Audit Office to probe areas of concern. Separately, the public service broadcaster said it would conduct a formal review of its internal governance procedures.
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The steps to increase regulatory oversight of the BBC come ahead of the introduction of its next royal charter in 2017 which could change the broadcaster’s remit and governance structure. Discussions over the charter are expected to begin next year.

A senior official at the department of culture, media and sport, said: “The structure [at the BBC] is obviously flawed. There is ongoing confusion and problems and we can’t wait until 2017 to fix it.”

The comments are the clearest sign yet that the government has concerns that regulation under the BBC Trust – the broadcaster’s governing body set up in 2007 – is not working properly.
Financial Times

Oh yippee.

"DCMS permanent secretary to step down

The Department of Culture's permanent secretary is to leave at the end of July, Civil Service World reports. Jonathan Stephens' departure means there is only one remaining permanent secretary who led their current department for the last government."

While Ofcom is independent of the DCMS, the fact remains that DCMS helped set it up and both were created by the increasingly authoritarian previous government. Don't expect an overnight change in attitudes, but breaking links with past direction cant be bad.
http://www.politicshome.com/uk/story/34806/

Ed Richards Says Ofcom Should Not Run BBC

In a surprise twist, Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards has contradicted the DCMS and said Ofcom should NOT run the BBC. This is the same Ed Richards would applied for the role of Director General earlier this year (or late last year?). Has he forgotten that he is no longer a senior civil servant responsible for forming government policy, but an employee, albeit senior, at an arms length quango responsible for implementing the policy? Has he overstepped the mark into Ofcom policy formation, something the Chairman should lead on? When I hire a builder, I dont expect one of the builders employees to turn round and make radical changes to my plans, and its the same principle here. Government decides, Ofcom does. The Ofcom Chairman leads, the Chief Executive implements. Either this is a serious case of the tail wagging the dog, or it an officially sanctioned statement agreed with the Board, or at least the Chairman.

(Awkwardly I agree, there should be separation of powers: regulation and management should be totally separate, otherwise the regulator ends up criticising, or going easy, on its own creation and its own appointees, quite possibly mates appointed from the regulator. But thats not the point).

Are Ed Richards days numbered now he has slapped down the Culture Secretary? (I doubt it. Teflon Ed will outlast the government, let alone one minister).
Ofcom 'should not govern' BBC, says regulator

(11-09-2013 22:41 )eccles Wrote:  Ofcom's head Ed may yet run the Beeb

Is Ofcom boss Ed Richards' middle name "Lucky"?

The UK watchdog's supremo could yet end up running the BBC without leaving his desk at Southwark Bridge. Last year, the former Labour policy wonk – who helped create Ofcom – applied to get the top job at the Beeb, only to lose out to George Entwistle. Now it's claimed the government wants Ofcom to take over more responsibility for the corporation - and abolish the BBC Trust altogether.
... ...

Not sure which thread to post this in, but as the lady in question is something of a hero in parts of the Nasty Party here seems good.

"The three programmes of which she [Mary Whitehouse] seems to have approved wholeheartedly were Songs Of Praise, which gained her National Viewers’ And Listeners’ Association’s first award, The Black And White Minstrel Show, which she found ‘wholesome and entertaining’ and Jim’ll Fix It, to which she also gave an award. Of these three, two are now considered too offensive and distressing to be shown on the BBC" Daily Mail

Yup, the woman who campaigned for family safety from filth praised a show that perpetuated racist stereotypes of the safe unthreatening lowly male negro working in the cotton fields (strangely the women were always white) and was taken in by the worst paedophile in recorded history. That makes me trust her judgement and that of her followers.

BBC: David Cameron's Twitter account followed 'high-class escorts'

Prime Minister David Cameron appeared to accidentally follow a high-class escort agency on Twitter.

BBC Wrote:Number 10 told the BBC the account had been followed due to an automated system they had in place in 2009. It said it was in the process of unfollowing "inappropriate" accounts.

Carltons of London's website said it offered the "finest London escorts to gentlemen of distinction".

Downing Street said "following" did not imply the PM's endorsement.

Gordon Brown and Labour were in power when the automated system was put in place.

An easy mistake to make. At least it was a high class agency, suitable for posh boys.

An exclusive picture of the moment his aide gave him the news:

^^^ What has this got to do with Ofcom, or Broadcasting Regulations in general?

Shouldn't it be in News Zone instead?

"Protect the audience". Fuck off - we can protect ourselves.

(23-11-2013 11:02 )munch1917 Wrote:  ^^^ What has this got to do with Ofcom, or Broadcasting Regulations in general?

Shouldn't it be in News Zone instead?

Apart from the schadenfreude, and this thread being about Tory views, lets not forget that this is the man who is forcing ISPs to add porn filters by default, is forcing search engines to blank search terms that criminals don't use (Jim Gamble, former head of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) said this would not have a big impact as paedophiles did not use search websites to find these images - BBC), and the man what said "Husbands will have to have a difficult conversation with their wives about accessing porn at home" - Daily Mail.

Dont be surprised if he also supports blocking foreign porn sites that don't have credit card age verification, blocking streaming porn sites, and turns out to be unfriendly towards adult TV channels.

(The irony is that it was Margaret Thatcher, who was hardly porn friendly, who made it easy for any home to receive foreign porn channels, by removing planning restrictions and the requirement to get a special radio operators licence.)

Anyway, this anti adult content zealot is so slapdash that his twitter account starts following an escort agency. Perhaps he is leading by example, showing that even responsible adults cant be trusted and there should be mandatory state controlled porn filters everywhere.