TUC backs union fight against ‘woeful’ broadcasting policy
THE TRADES Union Congress in September followed the NUJ’s lead to attack broadcasting policy as “woefully inadequate” and pledged the support of the UK trade union movement for the campaign against top slicing of the licence fee.
The conference also called on the government to use industry levies to help ensure that quality content, such as news and current affairs, is still provided on commercial channels.
General Secretary Jeremy Dear said that government plans to give 3.5 per cent of the licence fee to commercial broadcasters were “the equivalent of a Labour government taking money from NHS hospitals and handing it over to private health contractors.
“There is a funding crisis for other public service broadcasters,” he said, “and they should be supported to protect public service programming and to deliver quality local news.
“But contrary to the claims of government ministers there are other options — but they require a political commitment to defending the public service against commercial interests.”
The TUC passed the resolution, which declared the government’s Digital Britain report to be “a woefully inadequate response to the crisis facing public service broadcasting, which has seen thousands of jobs axed at the BBC and ITV, and the halving of local and regional news at ITV”.