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The all-party National Heritage Committee, chaired by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, has recently called for laws to ban media payments to witnesses in criminal trials and to restrict pre-trial publicity. The committee, whose recommendations are made in a report, Press activity affecting court cases, also called for the Contempt of Court Act 1981 (Section 2) to be strengthened (para 36), so that individual newspapers could not escape punishment where pre-trial publicity collectively caused a trial to collapse. The report added that compensation should be ordered and fines imposed by the Press Complaints...

On 12 February 1997, the Secretary of State for National Heritage laid new consolidated television licence fee regulations before both Houses of Parliament. Apart from bringing into effect the new level of television licence fees from 1 April 1997 (£91.50 for colour and £30.50 for black and white), the regulations, (i) "extend coverage of a television licence to permit installation and use of television in nay mobile home, static or touring caravan, or other vehivle or vessel used by members of the household, subject to certain provisons, and (b) "fulfil the Government's undertaking to stop sheltered...

The Court of Appeal has upheld the reasonableness of the decision of the Radio Authority that Amnesty International UK is an "unacceptable advertiser" in terms of the advertising code of practice. The Code stipulates that "No advertisment may be broadcast by, or on behalf of, any body whose objects are wholly or mainly of a political nature." Amnesty International had sought to run a national radio advertising campaign, during 1994, deploring the situation in Rwanda. The Court interpreted the phrase "wholly or mainly" to mean at least 75%, and, in this case, the Master of the Rolls said that "...

The UK Government has now announced details of the formula for increases over the next five years in the licence fee which funds the BBC. The fee is payable annually by all users of television sets, irrespective of viewing habits, and permits the BBC to be free of the commercial pressures of advertising as no advertisements are carried on its services. The current figure for a colour television licence is £89.50 per year. In order to minimise governmental pressure which could occur if the funding were renegotiated each year, the new formula is linked to the annual inflation rate, determined by...

The Independent Television Commission (ITC) has issued a draft code of conduct on licensing (analogue and digital) Electronic Programme Guides (EPG), for which the consultation period ran until 7 February 1997. In broad terms, an EPG service has two main functions. It allows a broadcaster to promote and provide information about his programme or additional services and to market and package them in manner which is likely to be more convenient for viewers. It is also seen as the only manageable way to select a programme in the near future with the expansion of the number of television services through...