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Monday, November 20, 2006

Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

Tonight the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism will be officially launched in Oxford. I wanted to be present at the launch but a previous commitment in the House of Lords made that impossible.

I had been present at various talks about the need for such an Institute over the last few years. John Lloyd, who is one of the key driving forces behind it and I had often discussed the need for an academic approach to the problems facing journalists.

The Institute creates a partnership between academics and journalists and will I think rapidly establish itself as a centre of excellence.

A short quote from Sarmila Bose the Director of the Institute indicates the initial priorities:

"Its focus is news media and it has identified a few substantive areas in which to concentrate its research and activities in the initial years: a critical assessment of the actual exercise of freedom and the responsibilities of democratic governance by the media in established open societies, such as the US, western Europe and India; an examination of the evolution of media in societies moving from controlled to relatively free media; problems in the reporting of news in science and medicine and how to address them; issues in business and economic journalism; and the global representation of religious faith."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1952063,00.html

The opening event in Oxford tonight will be webcast at reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk

I am very pleased to have been associated with some of the early thinking on this project and will watch its development with a certain amount of pride.

Climate change

I spoke in the debate on the Queen's speech on Thursday. I chose the subject of climate change as did many other speakers - an indication of the growing awareness of the importance of this issue.

In my opening remarks I am referring to the four maiden speeches in the debate. It is part of the tradition that first time speakers are acknowledged by those who follow them. The same is true of the Commons. In the Commons it is also traditional that a first speech is heard in silence, that is, no interruptions. After that the gloves come off! As you rarely get interrupted in the Lords the same tradition is unnecessary!

The following link takes you to my contribution.

http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld199697/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds06/text/61116-0005.htm

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The media and the people

I was asked by the Westminster Media Forum to speak for 5 minutes on the type of media people would want in the future. My speaking notes follow:

                                             

                                         Westminster Forum

With the advent of blogging there has been significant growth in the variety of opinion. Newspapers have also moved heavily into the domain of opinion.

Radio and TV news programmes have become more confrontational and increasingly use the mode of ‘a speaker for’ and ‘a speaker against’.

News in the sense of information about complex events has, I believe, lost out in this explosion of opinion.

Let me give an example of the way the public loses out on information about complex issues. Climate change. There is growing concern amongst the public and yet they lurch between a feeling of inadequacy “It’s too big for me – They have to do something about it”. Or, the panic mode “We are killing the planet – they have to do something about it”. The government does some advertising to inform. Pressure groups do campaigning advertising of the ‘stop flying’ variety.

In fact there is far more the public can do then just put less water in the kettle, turn off the standby on the TV or cancel their holiday. They can for example buy all or some of their electricity from renewable resources. They can install wind or solar power generators on their homes or groups of homes and there are grants available to make it cheaper. If they do install a renewable power generator they can in many cases sell the electricity (not just the surplus back to the grid). One renewable energy supplier offers 4.5p per kilowatt even if you are using that electricity yourself.

At least one local authority has a near carbon free policy for its existing buildings.

Climate change is a serious matter and this is the type of information that we ought to make more easily available. Finding it on the internet only works if you know about it!

I can’t see why news can’t cover local issues or individual behaviour in a national way when it affects national issues.

MP’s often say that issues raised with them by constituents are not the issues dominating the press. As a member of the Lords I have been asked how to get restrictions on pubs following the new legislation giving more power to local people. As an MP I was asked about how to get ASBO’s.

There are numerous such examples and it doesn’t need a boring fact sheet to provide it. What can you do? What powers or influence are available to you?  These are important matters for everyone.

When Jamie Oliver started his campaign on school dinners I watched the TV Any Questions? programme. A member of the audience challenged the government to “do something”. Quite rightly in terms of confrontational politics but no body including the Minister on the programme told them that many members of the audience already had significant power. Schools do have an individual budget they can use for their own priorities. Local authorities are free to spend more – some only spent the minimum of around 30p others spent around 50p or 60p. So parents, teacher’s local authority members and officers all had influence but it was rarely raised in the general media coverage of that issue.

When people say they are “fed up” with the political parties do they know how to influence political parties? Or stand as an independent?  Or pursue some of the other options they have in a democracy? Voting is not the beginning and end of the democratic process.

Opinion is the stuff of democratic argument but a bit of news would be nice too!

Unless people have more information on how to use their existing power and influence then politics becomes an increasingly spectator activity.  And if they don’t like the confrontational bit why not just switch off - literally and metaphorically?

The challenge to the media is how to help people, locally and nationally, to become active participants and not just frustrated commentators. This is not just in politics but in all the complex areas of modern life not least science and technology.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

USA elections

This is very good news about the Democrats. I am not sure how much George Bush will change but if it signals the long overdue dismissal of Donald Rumsfeld it can only be a major step in the right direction.

Responses

David Heathfield. I agree. It was the point I was trying to make with Tony Benn. He tried to interpret it as "Parliament is irrelevant". In fact I was saying that the media has taken over the role of opposition in Parliament and they put greater emphasis on their opinion than on speeches or comments in the House.

Paul. I don't know if there is a web site on Government contracts. I suspect not but all contracts have to be made public although the discussions leading up to them would be confidential for commercial reasons - not least giving advantage to some companies.

You might find the following site useful and if you type in "government contracts" there are a number of other information sites.

http://www.supplyinggovernment.gov.uk/

The various Dan's! Failed states are NOT just about terrorism. It is also about human rights, the rule of law and democracy. The nation state is still seen by many as more important - hence China's reluctance to see intervention in the Sudan (Darfur) or to see regime change in North Korea. Without the stability that is brought by the rule of law etc there is inevitable a much greater risk of war and internal conflict.

The Horn of Africa is difficult. The danger of ever smaller independent states risks the Balkanisation of that area but it might be the only solution.

I can express my opposition to the death penalty without kidding myself that I live in a perfect world. It might have escaped your attention but the Middle East is not the perfect world!

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Saddam Hussein

For the record I am opposed to the death penalty but I think it would be totally unrealistic to tell the Government of Iraq how to deal with this situation. The intensity of feeling about Saddam is very great.

What I hope the Iraqi government does is to make extra efforts to re engage with the Sunni population and the offer by the Prime Minister to allow some Bathists to have their jobs back subject to certain conditions is a step in the right direction.