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For the first time, the Independent Television Commission which regulates private broadcasting in the UK, has revoked a broadcaster's licence. The broadcaster involved was Med TV, a satellite television service for a Kurdish audience, broadcasting throughout Europe and based in the UK. The Commission considered that four broadcasts, which had included inflammatory statements encouraging acts of violence in Turkey or elsewhere, were «likely to encourage or incite to crime or lead to disorder» and so would be in breach of UK law as set out in the Broadcasting Acts 1990 and 1996. In November 1998...

The Departments of Trade and Culture, Media and Sport jointly published their report (on 17 June 1999) entitled "Regulating Communications: The Way Ahead". The Report is a response to the comments made to the Green Paper, "Regulating Communications: Approaching Convergence in the Information Age", which was published on 21 July 1998 ( see IRIS 1998-8: 3). The present document reports broad agreement with the evolutionary approach to regulation set out in the Green Paper, in the face of uncertainties about the timing, pace and direction of change. The Government stands by its approach to communications...

The 1998 Annual Report of the BBFC has just been published. Marking his retirement after 24 years, the outgoing Director, James Ferman, writes that the most important achievement has been the formulation of a clear set of principles and policies; the key issue of his term is said to be violence, particularly sexual violence. The principles and procedures have now been codified into the "Classification Guidelines" (see Appendix 1 of the Report). The BBFC has also increased its commitment to transparency, by publishing press releases explaining "controversial or highprofile" decisions. A new "Advisory...

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) which regulates the private sector of British broadcasting has published its annual Performance Review examining the performance of the regional Channel 3 companies, Channels 4 and 5 and public teletext services during 1998. The Review assesses the compliance of the companies with their licence obligations; these include diversity and quality and so it is able to take a broad overview of the standard of commercial television. In its overall assessment of Channel 3, the Commission noted that whilst its total share of terrestrial audience had fallen from...

The British minister for Trade and Industry decided in April to block the proposed take-over by broadcaster BSkyB of the leading English football club, Manchester United. This followed a report and advice from the competition authorities, i.e. the Monopolies and Mergers Commission and the Director General of Fair Trading, both stating that the merger would operate against the public interest and therefore should be prohibited. The major basis for the decision was that the Commission had concluded that the merger would reduce competition for the broadcasting rights to matches in the English Premier...