Mr Speaker,Broadcasting Act 2019
Key provisions:
- Privatises the Channel Four Television Corporation with an IPO on the London Stock Exchange
-Decriminalises non-payment of the television licence fee, making it a civil offence only
-Introduces a code of conduct for persons employed by the BBC in any capacity to maintain political impartiality and objectivity both on and off the airwaves
-Caps BBC salaries to £500,000 p/a and requires that all staff earning more than £99,999 /p/a be named with details of their salaries published
-Defines Government spending on the BBC World Service as a component of Overseas Development Aid
-Sets out a requirement for the BBC World Service to offer own-language services in specific countries as defined by the Government
-Requires all terrestrial channels to broadcast party political broadcasts concurrently
-Renames OFCOM the Broadcasting Standards Authority and gives the BSA new powers to fine channels and producers which are found to have displayed political bias
-Requires broadcasters to make British Sign Language interpretation available for all programming at all times
-Requires broadcasters to implement subtitles on all content displayed via streaming services, like iPlayer or Netflix, and all other online video services supported by the broadcaster
Broadcasting in the United Kingdom has become a swamp of political bias, celebrity profiteering, indiscriminate anti-conservative activism and religious discrimination. In Britain today, celebrities on multi-million pound salaries paid out of the public purse are placed on a pedestal to lecture the British people about right and wrong. Newsreaders on Twitter declare their fellow countrymen to be racist. Our airwaves are dominated by the left-liberal elite, and by the silencing of majoritarian positions. On television, dramatised programming glamorises criminality, drug abuse, alcoholism and sexual promiscuity; it embraces a far-left agenda which denies the sanctity of womanhood and which obfuscates open debate in the name of political correctness. The “woke” brigades of keyboard warriors take to the screens to decry half of their compatriots as xenophobic. And channels such as Channel 4, funded by the general public, exhibit a clear left-of-centre bias which leaves the silent majority excluded. This country is in the midst of a culture war which conservatives did not start but were called to fight; a culture war in which free speech, fair debate and impartial events coverage are the casualties. We live in a world where exorbitant BBC salaries are a serious strain on the Exchequer; where publicly-funded newscasters take clear editorial positions; and where a toothless regulator fails to ensure propriety and ethics in reporting and broadcasting.
This government is ending the domination of the sneering liberal elite, Mr Speaker. It is rolling back the frontiers of the outrage brigade and the wokester mob. It is putting consumers back at the heart of broadcasting policy, eliminating wasteful spending, and introducing transparency into the heart of our national broadcasting apparatus. Most of all, we are restoring trust, Mr Speaker: trust in broadcasting as a source of objective, impartial news, and of television and radio drama as a source of informative and entertaining, rather than debauched and criminal, storylines.
The first measure outlined in the Broadcasting Bill is the privatisation in totality of Channel Four Television. In this day and age, when thousands of broadcasters compete for advertising and subscription revenue, it is simply unacceptable that a fragrantly editorialising and seldom impartial broadcaster, which exhibits with alarming regularity a distinct socialist bias, should continue to be funded by the taxpayer. Channel 4 will be listed on the London Stock Exchange as a public limited company, with the great British public free to purchase shares and set the direction of a channel which was always meant for them.
BBC salaries will be capped, and salaries over the six-figure mark will have to be declared and published. It is completely unreasonable to expect the taxpayer to foot the bill for the multi-million salaries of talking heads like Gary Lineker, who take to Twitter regularly to decry half of their fellow countrymen as backward, racist thugs. It is unacceptable that a top BBC executive should be paid more than the Prime Minister, receive more perks than the Queen; and be utterly unaccountable for how he spends public money in a time of intense pressure on our finances.
All BBC staff will be required to abide by a new code of conduct applying both on and off the air, requiring rigid impartiality and objectivity in the publication of facts. Ideologues with a large following, who spout politically charged propaganda, should not be funded by the British taxpayer. The Broadcasting Bill also decriminalises non-payment of the licence fee, recognising for the first time that failure to pay whilst consuming BBC services is a civil rather than a criminal matter, and a matter for the BBC themselves to pursue in the courts rather than the police and the CPS - who frankly have far more valuable things to do. Gone are the days of mobile BBC vans trundling around estates seeking to catch out non-payers, and gone are the days of prosecuted pensioners begging in the courtroom to be spared a jail sentence for their heinous crime of watching television without a licence.
Interpretation in British Sign Language will be a requirement for all programming at all times, at the expense of broadcasters. It is unacceptable that the deaf community should be excluded from broadcasting when their inclusion is so easy and so cost-effective. All catch-up television services will be required to provide closed caption subtitling for all programmes. And to promote political engagement and understanding, PPBs will now be scheduled concurrently across all terrestrial channels.
The bounds of the BBC World Service will be expanded, with a new remit to speak truth in the most oppressed and repressed corners of the globe. Spending on the World Service will now form part of our wider ODA budget, recognising its contribution to the promotion of democracy, free trade and the rule of law.
A new Broadcasting Standards Authority will have the power to level fines against broadcasters and individuals who are found to exhibit political bias on the airwaves.
Mr Speaker, this bill is about taking back control of our airwaves after decades of their having been surrendered to the liberal elite. It is about empowering the British people to know the truth, and know that the truth shall make them free. It is about decency, fairness, and renewal. It is, in short, what this government is all about. I commend this bill to the House.