By-line
transmit TV to areas which received poor ‘off -
air’ signals. Reception problems were also the
reason for the US ‘cabling up’ in the 1950s. Until
the election of the Conservative government in
1979, the commercial potential of cable in devel-
oping information technology had stimulated
only modest interest. In March 1982 the Tory
Cabinet’s Information Technology Advisory
Panel (ITAP), appointed in July 1981, recom-
mended a rapid and substantial expansion of
cable networks, to be established and operated
by private companies.
The Hunt Report (see hunt committee
report on cable expansion and broad-
casting policy (uk), 1982) also urged the
‘wiring up’ of the nation, with a minimum of
rules and regulations. Today cable networks
compete in broadcasting and internet services
with satellite transmission, often carrying the
same TV programmes. In the UK, examples
of cable TV providers are Challenge, Dave and
G.O.L.D., the dominant provider being Virgin
Media. In the US the best-known cable services
are ESPN, HBO, USA Network and Nickelodeon.
See fibre-optic technology.
Cahiers du Cinéma French film magazine
founded by Andre Bazin in 1951; associated
with, and very often written by, the Nouvelle
Vague, or New Wave directors such as Claude
Chabrol and François Truff aut. Th e young critics
of Cahiers reacted against the current ideologi-
cal conservatism in the fi lm world – against its
reluctance to face up to or to express the facts of
contemporary life.
Calcutt Committee Reports on Privacy and
Related Matters, 1990 and 1993 Lawyer and
Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, David
Calcutt was the government-appointed chair-
man in 1990 of a committee set up to examine
British press intrusions into personal privacy,
after complaints from many quarters. Calcutt’s
chief recommendation was the creation of a
non-statutory press complaints commis-
sion. Th e tenor of Calcutt’s fi rst report was a
warning to the newspaper industry – either set
your own house in order, or it will be done for
you by government legislation.
Subsequent high-profile press ‘intrusions’
into the ‘private’ lives of the Royal family and of
government ministers – stories that incidentally
proved very popular with the newspaper-buying
public – decided Calcutt that the voluntary
route to better press behaviour had not worked.
Calcutt’s 1993 report, a solo eff ort, was greeted
by Lord McGregor, Chairman of the Press
Complaints Commission, child of Calcutt Mkand should reach their own conclusions. But
we regard it as a serious weakness, a weakness
which subsequently came home to roost as the
conclusion about deployable stocks of chemical
and biological weapons have turned out to be
wrong’.
In other words, Britain went to war on inad-
equate and unreliable information against a
threat that did not exist. Th e Report is scathing
about a ‘high proportion’ of unreliable sources
of information; the inadequate way in which
MI6 verifi ed its sources; reliance on third-hand
reporting; and the ‘seriously fl awed’ information
provided by external agencies.
However, Lord Butler drew back from appor-
tioning blame; indeed he seemed to be saying
that nobody was culpable, a judgment that
prompted amazement in many quarters, though
as one commentator put it, the public was
served up a ‘typical English compromise’: things
were badly wrong, but not by deliberate inten-
tion. Th e conclusion was taken by New Labour
government as exoneration.
Shortly after the publication of the Butler
Report, John Scarlett, the head of Joint Intel-
ligence Services which had been so robustly
criticized, was appointed by Prime Minister
Tony Blair to become the new head of the Secret
Intelligence Service. See consent, manu-
facture of; disinformation; freedom of
information act (uk), 2005; hutton report
(uk), 2004; phillis review of government
communications (uk), 2004.
By-line Use of the journalist’s/author’s name
on a report or article. Th ese are very common
now in the press, but at one time the granting
of by-lines was a rare honour, to distinguish top
writers or as a reward for outstanding reportage.
C
Cable and Broadcasting Act (UK), 1984
Drawn up by the Conservative government with
the intention of facilitating the ‘cabled society’,
the Act followed most of the recommendations
of the hunt committee report on cable
expansion and broadcasting policy (uk),
1982, which proposed a cable network for Britain
with the minimum of rules and regulations.
Th e Act set up a Cable Authority to select cable
operators for particular areas and to maintain an
overview on general matters of organization and
programming.
Cable television Below-ground cable networks
were established in the 1930s in the UK to relay
radio broadcasts. Th ese were later adapted to