A Watchdog for British TV
GELB, NORMAN
THE SPECTER OF CENSORSHIP A Watchdog for British TV BY NORMAN GELB London Shortly before every national election here, each of the political parties publishes a "manifesto," or what in...
...Hussey was thus telling Thatcher that one day a Labor Party government will take power in Britain, and that she might very well find its opinions on what should or should not be shown to the public exceedingly repugnant...
...Norman Gelb writes regularly for The New Leader on British affairs...
...The American program The A Team is not one he thinks should be shown (despite the fact that for all its nonsense, no one gets killed and no blood is spilled by Mr...
...But to the fury of the government, its request was turned down and both Gibraltar programs were quickly given prime time slots...
...He believes news and current affairs programs can be transgressors, too, often needlessly displaying killing and mayhem...
...It is easy to envision the new Standards Council at least exerting influence in these areas...
...Freedom of the press is deeply rooted in British culture...
...The BBC and the Independent Broadcast Authority (IB A), critics argued, are perfectly capable of deciding what is and what is not suitable for public viewing...
...Nevertheless, the incident has reinforced the fears of many who are worried that the Council may one day be in a position not merely to advise against screening controversial programs but to place a legal ban on them...
...In addition, the government was widely taken to task in the press and by the Opposition in Parliament for trying to exert improper pressure on the media...
...T et al...
...Then, as in America, Council advocates warn, pornography could find its way onto British TV screens...
...It would be wrong, however, to assume that this led to the subsequent establishment of the new Broadcasting Standards Council and the appointment of Rees-Mogg...
...A number of individuals see that as just a step away from acquiring authority to ban such programs when they are judged unsuitable, nomatterwhy...
...BBC Chairman Marmaduke Hussey has urged the government "to think very seriously about this breach in the wall of editorial independence, and by how much and for what reason that breach might be widened by their successors...
...The detailed attention the media in the United States give to criminal cases still to be decided by the courts is not tolerated in the UK...
...The shudder has now turned into a deep chill with the news that the government has set up a Broadcasting Standards Council and that its chairman is to be Sir William Rees-Mogg, former editor of the London Times and a pillar of the Establishment...
...The precise powers of the new body are still unclear...
...Rees-Mogg, while not overly specific as yet about his personal tastes, has expressed some of his feelings...
...Deputy Labor Party Leader Roy Hattersley has similarly called the appointment of a guardian of TV standards the thin edge of a "highly authoritarian wedge...
...A senior television executive has asked rhetorically, "Are his tastes those of the nation...
...A lot will depend on the attitude ReesMogg brings to the job...
...The crucial thing," he has said, "is to see that the violence aspect of U.S...
...We will therefore bring forward proposals for stronger and more effective arrangements to reflect that concern...
...Stung by the suggestion, the British government asked that the screening of the programs be delayed until the authorities in Gibraltar could hold a proper inquest and fully explore the allegations...
...BBC television and an independent TV company investigated...
...Had the incident occurred in Britain, it was pointed out, the programs could not legally be shown because the case was subjudice...
...The Conservative manifesto last year, when Margaret Thatcher won a third term as prime minister, declared in part: "There is deep public concern over the display of sex and violence on television...
...is calleda"platform...
...As the debate on what his exact legal powers should be continues, it may serve to dilute the authority he will finally be granted...
...The reaction of the existing TV authorities has, predictably, been one of foreboding...
...Never mind that a vast number of American programs, from Dallas to Cheers, are consistently among the higher rated shows in terms of viewers...
...Yet even if his Broadcasting Standards Council is limited simply to pontificating, the reality is that the slightest criticism from official circles raises the specter of censorship within the media...
...Aside from being a former Times editor, he has been chairman of the British Arts Council and of a reputable British book publishing company...
...indeed, American press freedom was initially based on British law...
...Under his direction the London Times leaned toward the Tories, as it does today...
...Unlike the United States, Britain has no written constitution and no written Bill of Rights...
...For it could in due course be empowered to penalize television companies that violate its code...
...THE SPECTER OF CENSORSHIP A Watchdog for British TV BY NORMAN GELB London Shortly before every national election here, each of the political parties publishes a "manifesto," or what in the U.S...
...Is his idea of political bias a concept which is generally shared...
...But an act of Parliament, where all legal power ultimately resides, could limit press and broadcast rights in Britain...
...Those words sent a shudder down the spines of Britons convinced that Thatcher, with her self-proclaimed "Victorian" standards, is determined to sweep TV screens clean of everything she finds objectionable...
...And he sympathizes with the feminists' complaint that a good deal of the sexual license on television is degrading and offensive to women...
...Unhappiness about government interference in television programing had already been emphatically expressed last March, after counterterrorist operatives from the elite Strategic Air Services shot and killed three members of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) poised to carry out a car bomb attack in the British colony of Gibraltar...
...There is a distinct unease among media people that the Council will evolve into an instrument of government and will serve to squelch whatever the powers that be find inappropriate, not only sex and violence...
...The strongest words have come in response to Rees-Mogg's demanding the right to preview foreign programs...
...There is also mounting criticism of the level of violence that many program makers—British as well as foreign—increasingly feel is necessary to make their point and attract audiences...
...Not much should be drawn from a report that he was once seen playing tennis in a suit, but he has never been known for possessing either daring or the common touch...
...Those who acclaim the Council's creation contend that it is essential if Britain is not to go the way of the U.S., whose television standards are commonly derided here...
...Remote as that possibility may be, the appointment of a new guardian of public morals is understandably upsetting to the many who worry that worse might follow...
...He has been called a forerunner of the Young Fogies —a breed of youngish British neoconservatives who have sprouted in Establishment positions of late...
...Such publicity is deemed potentially damaging to the course of justice and violators can be severely punished for contempt of court...
...Can it be assumed that he will submerge his political beliefs and prejudices when it comes to judging whether a program is biased...
...In these circumstances it is perhaps not surprising that Chairman ReesMogg's character has been the subject of considerable comment...
...Although their thoroughness is open to criticism, they produced separate reports strongly implying that the IRA team could have been taken alive, that its three members were in fact deliberately executed...
...television culture is not brought in cheaply to British television...
...He himself was a failed Tory parliamentary candidate...
...Whether it will be content to confineitself to "previewing and pontificating," as the highly respected daily Independent put it, is the open question...
...At the same time, Rees-Mogg is hardly a philistine...
...All that is known so far is that it will monitor television programs for excessive sex and violence, write a code of standards, and deal with complaints from the public...
...Right now, it is noted, there are only four regular channels on British television (two operated by the BBC and two commercially), but satellite television is coming on strong and soon as many as 40 channels may be available...
...These moves were in the works before the Gibraltar affair occurred...
...The noncommercial BBC has a different restraint: Since it is funded by a tax on owners of television sets (my bill this year was $62.50), incurring too much official displeasure can result in resistance to its periodic requests for permission to increase that charge because of inflation and expansion of services...
...At present independent commercial TV companies can be deprived of their franchises by the IBA if deemed unworthy...
...The implied answer to both these questions was no...
...Would reasons be found to question programs dramatizing less agreeable aspects of British life—pockets of poverty, grotesquely enduring class distinctions, racial discrimination—ostensibly because they contain scenes of sex and violence...
Vol. 71 • June 1988 • No. 11
