Lords Push Through Amendments To Communications Bill

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

26 June 2003

Rebel peers in the House of Lords have fired the opening shots in the dispute between the government and the upper house over the forthcoming Communications Bill.

Although much of the attention up to this point has been focused on the objections of peers such as Lord Puttnam to proposals which would in theory allow media mogul Rupert Murdoch to purchase Channel Five, the two amendments put forward by the Lords earlier this week were concerned with the obligations of the planned 'super regulator', Ofcom, towards consumers.

According to reports, a cross-party coalition forced through amendments obliging Ofcom to place a greater emphasis on the protection of the rights of citizens, as opposed to companies (passed by a 174-74 margin), and requiring it to promote the take-up of high speed broadband access, particularly in rural and low income areas (passed by 113 votes to 111).

With regard to Lord Puttnam's suggestion that public interest review provisions should be tacked onto proposed legislation which would allow newspaper owners to purchase Five, a spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport told the Guardian this week that:

'We've said that we haven't been persuaded by a plurality test up to now but we're not ideologically opposed to it. If we were satisfied that it didn't have a form of words that would restrict competition then we would consider it.'

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