Offi cial Secrets Act (UK)
was widely seen as arbitrary and unwise and an
indication of government being ‘in the pocket’
of a seemingly all-powerful media mogul and
his empire. Clearly part of Leveson’s remit will
be to consider the power, or lack of it, of Ofcom
to assert principles of public interest and media
regulation.
Th e watchdog took the initiative of announc-
ing a review of whether those responsible for
and running News Corp would qualify as ‘fit
and proper’ persons to run public media. Th e
head of Ofcom, Ed Richards, said the regula-
tor would ‘consider any relevant conduct of
those who manage and control’ licences to
broadcast. See british sky broadcasting
(bskyb); murdoch effect; press complaints
commission; predatory pricing; regula-
tory favours.
Offi cial Secrets Act (UK) Born in a spy scare
during the Agadir crisis of 1911, reinforced in
1920 during the Troubles in Ireland, and given
further power as war broke out in 1939, the Act
censors information – access to and expression
of it – which might be of use to the nation’s
enemies. It is easier to define what the Act
doesn’t cover than what it does; without ques-
tion, it is the single most comprehensive weapon
of censorship with regard to the activities of
government in the UK, and has few parallels in
the ‘free’ world.
For a time, the saving grace of the Act was
the possibility of defending individual, group or
media breaches of secrecy on the grounds that
such a breach was in the public interest. This
was excised from the Act by the Conservative
government in 1990 and subsequent New Labour
administrations made no move to put it back.
Brian Raymond, solicitor to the civil servant
Clive Ponting who was unsuccessfully pros-
ecuted under the Act for revealing information
about the sinking by a British submarine of
the Argentinian battleship Belgrano, with the
loss of hundreds of lives during the Falklands
War (1982), said: ‘Th e obliteration of the public
interest defence ... amounts to a licence to cover
up Government wrong-doing.’ See d-notices;
freedom of information act, 2005; regu-
lation of investigatory powers act
(ripa), 2000; secrecy; spycatcher case.
See also topic guide under media: freedom,
censorship.
Oligopolization Oligarchy is government by a
small exclusive class or group; in media terms,
oligopolization is the process of communication
systems falling into the hands of a small exclusive
group of owners or corporations.public – and students of communication – are
Ofcom reports. These are wide-ranging and
address such matters as product placement
and paid-for references to brands and products
on radio (December 2010), net neutrality
(June 2010), and the deregulation of commercial
local radio (April 2010).
Ofcom has clout: in November 2010 it revoked
the licences of four stations (Tease Me, Tease Me
TV, and Tease Me 2 and 3) run by Bang Channels
Ltd and Bang Media (London) ‘following serious
breaches of the broadcasting code’. Th is followed
a 157,250 fine imposed on the companies in
July. In its judgment Ofcom referred to a ‘wholly
inadequate compliance system’ that amounted
to ‘manifest recklessness’.
At the close of 2010 the regulator fined
London-based Continental Telecom 50,000
for failing to provide information to Ofcom as
part of its investigation into the fi rm for landline
mis-selling.
In a more benign mood Ofcom celebrated
small community radio stations which it consid-
ered bring far-reaching benefi ts to communities- both to audiences and to the thousands of
unpaid volunteers (40,000 of them nationwide)
who help man the 181 stations (November 2010).
Th e report cited one such, Diverse FM of Luton,
which broadcasts in Bengali, Hindu, Gujarati,
Urdu, Pahari, Polish, Arabic, Swahjili and Patura.
Ofcom’s power over UK broadcasting
is, however, far from absolute. In 2011, the
Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition
government ignored Ofcom’s recommendation
that Rupert Murdoch’s news corp application
to increase its holding in BSkyB from 39.1 per
cent to 100 per cent be sent to the Competition
Commission. Th e Secretary of State for Culture
Jeremy Hunt was ‘mindful’ to give Murdoch the
go-ahead based upon an off er to suspend direct
control of BSkyNews for a period of ten years;
a deal described by the UK Daily Telegraph as
‘little more than a carefully choreographed
capitulation’ (Leader comment, ‘A body blow to
the notion of a vibrant, diverse press’, 4 March).
However, such ambitions were dramatically
put on hold as the Murdoch media empire was
engulfed in scandal as revelations became public
of extensive and systemic phone-hacking on the
part of the News of the World (see journalism:
phone-hacking). The 168-year-old, highly
profi table Sunday paper was shut down in July
2011, swiftly followed by the establishment by
government of a public inquiry headed by Lord
Justice Leveson.
Th e decision by Hunt to ignore Ofcom advice