According to the UK Green Party website the Green Party will try to achieve the following if they gain power at the 2010 general election:
CMS630 We will establish a principle of appointing regulatory bodies by democratic means, through nomination from appropriate democratically organised bodies, including trade unions and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), as well as direct and indirect elections. All senior appointments, such as Director General of the BBC, or Chair of the Independent Television Commission (ITC), should be made by regulatory bodies, and where appropriate, scrutinized by the relevant Select Committee in the House of Commons.
CMS631 The Office of Communications (OFCOM) will remain as the primary regulatory authority across all media, but the remit will be amended to give social and cultural concerns equal weight to commercial factors. The current bias against intervention has tended to create a focus on market failure as the basis for regulation.
CMS632 Membership of the OFCOM Board and the Board Committees will be reformed to include democratically elected representatives from stakeholders.
CMS633 The role of OFCOM will be further expanded to take on statutory responsibility and regulation for matters relating to print media. In the first instance OFCOM may delegate front line complaint handling to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), but OFCOM will provide a regulatory framework for the work of the PCC
CMS634 A free press & media are fundamental to our society and should not be constrained by spurious definitions of the public interest. Privacy laws, whilst protecting citizens’ rights, should not be used to obstruct proper investigative journalism.
CMS635 Trade unions in the mass media can help democratisation of access to media by giving employee stakeholders a voice in the output of media channels. The Green Party will support the role of unions in the media, with a view to developing a formal union representation on governing boards of large media organisations in the UK.
I would be interested to hear both positive and negative views on UK Green Party’s Media policies in the comments below?