Puttnam to lead fight against Murdoch buying Five

by Jennifer Whitehead,, Brand Republic 03-Dec-02, 10:50

LONDON - Lord Puttnam, chairman of the joint scrutiny committee into the new communications bill, has said that he will raise questions over the future of Five and cross-media ownership in the House of Lords.

Lord Puttnam is critical of the government's decision to overrule his recommendation that newspaper proprietors should continue to be banned from owning Five. This is the rule that currently prevents Rupert Murdoch from owning a terrestrial broadcaster in the UK. He was tipped as a buyer for Five should the rule be changed, as outlined in the communications bill.

Writing in the Financial Times Creative Business supplement, Lord Puttnam said: "Without setting out its reasons, the government has chosen to reject the joint committee's recommendation that the 'prohibition on common ownership of a major newspaper group and Five should be retained'.

"Its thinking may be immaculate, but it will need to be far better explained, far more evidential and extremely convincing before I and many of my colleagues in the Lords are persuaded by it."

He also said that Ofcom should have sufficient funding to retain top-class lawyers so that it can defend itself from what he describes as "the world's most aggressive lobbyists".

Lord Puttnam did praise the bill for an "insurance policy", which gives Ofcom the power to establish targets for investment in UK programming, thus protecting UK content production.

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