Jeremy Corbyn: media diversity 'is intrinsic to a democratic society'
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Version 0 of 1. In “a wide-ranging interview” with the Financial Times’s Jim Pickard, Jeremy Corbyn spoke, in just three sentences, about media plurality: “I think there is far too much concentration in the hands of too few and so I would look at that again. Diversity in media is something that is intrinsic to a democratic society. We do not want the whole media owned by one person.” Press Gazette reports that as an intention by Corbyn to tackle Rupert Murdoch’s concentration of media ownership, which, all things considered, seems a reasonable interpretation. I seem to recall that Neil Kinnock had a similar notion, but he never got the chance to do anything about it because he lost the 1992 election in the face of Murdoch’s opposition (as exemplified by the Sun’s hostile coverage). Tony Blair gave Murdoch no cause for concern, of course. As for Ed Miliband, he talked tough at the Leveson inquiry in 2012 by saying he didn’t believe “one person” should “continue to control… 34% of the newspaper market”. That happened to be the share of copy sales then enjoyed by Murdoch’s UK newspapers: Times, Sunday Times, Sun and Sun on Sunday. But Miliband’s 2015 election manifesto rattled no sabres, merely stating : “Labour will take steps to protect the principle of media plurality, so that no media outlet can get too big, including updating our rules for the 21st century media environment.” Corbyn will not be expecting a scintilla of support from Murdoch (nor any other national newspaper publisher and/or editor for that matter), so he probably won’t worry about headlines proclaiming that his views amount to a threat to press freedom (which, incidentally, they do not). |