LABOUR: Our system of public service broadcasting is one of Britain’s great strengths.
The BBC makes a vital contribution to the richness of our cultural life, and
we will ensure that it continues to do so while delivering value for money. We
will also commit to keeping Channel 4 in public ownership, so it continues to
produce vital public content.
CONSERVATIVE: A free media is the bedrock of an open society. We
will deliver a comprehensive review of the BBC Royal
Charter, ensuring it delivers value for money for the
licence fee payer, while maintaining a world class service
and supporting our creative industries. That is why
we froze the BBC licence fee and will keep it frozen,
pending Charter renewal. And we will continue to ‘topslice’
the licence fee for digital infrastructure to support
superfast broadband across the country...
We will use our membership of NATO, the
EU, the Commonwealth, our UN Security Council seat,
our Special Relationship with the USA, our intelligence
agencies, vital institutions like the BBC World Service
and British Council, and the strong personal links
between our diaspora communities and other countries,
to achieve the best for Britain.
LIBDEM: We will protect the independence of the BBC while ensuring the Licence
Fee does not rise faster than inflation, maintain Channel 4 in public
ownership and protect the funding and editorial independence of
Welsh language broadcasters.
To promote the independence of the media from political influence
we will remove Ministers from any role in appointments to the BBC
Trust or the Board of Ofcom.
We will maintain funding to BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring and the
British Council.
GREEN: Maintain the BBC as the primary public service broadcaster, free of government interference, with funding guaranteed in real terms in statute to prevent government interference.
UKIP: Currently, British intelligence is fragmented between a
number of agencies, including MI5, MI6, GCHQ and BBC
Monitoring. All have different funding streams and report
to different government departments. This generates a
significant overlap in work and resources and risks exposing
gaps in the system.
UKIP will create a new over-arching role of Director of
National Intelligence (subject to confirmation hearing by the
relevant Commons Select Committee), who will be charged
with reviewing UK intelligence and security, in order to
ensure threats are identified, monitored and dealt with by
the swiftest, most appropriate and legal means available.
He or she will be responsible for bringing all intelligence
services together; developing cyber security measures;
cutting down on waste and encouraging information and
resource sharing.
PLAID CYMRU: We will devolve broadcasting
to Wales and implement
recommendations on
broadcasting made by Plaid
Cymru to the Silk Commission.
These include establishing a
BBC Trust for Wales as part of a
more federal BBC within the UK.
Trustees would be appointed by
the Welsh Government and the
appointment process including
public hearings held by the
National Assembly for Wales.
Responsibility for S4C, the world’s
only Welsh language channel,
would transfer to the National
Assembly for Wales, as would
the funding for the channel that
is currently with the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport. We
will ensure that S4C is adequately
funded and that the channel
maintains editorial independence.
Again, the Welsh Government
should appoint the board
members of the S4C Authority
following public hearings.
We support establishing a new
Welsh language multimedia
service to operate online, on radio
and other platforms, in order
to reflect the needs of Welsh
language audiences and improve
current affairs coverage in Wales.
Ofcom’s office in Wales should
have greater powers, including
the authority to take licensing
decisions. The members of
Ofcom’s Advisory Committee
for Wales should be appointed
by the Welsh Government. This
would be best achieved by the
federalisation of the work of
Ofcom in a UK context.
