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Bill: Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media
Details
Submitted by[?]: Humanist Socialist Party
Status[?]: passed
Votes: This is an ordinary bill. It requires more yes votes than no votes. This bill will not pass any sooner than the deadline.
Voting deadline: April 2078
Description[?]:
| WHEREAS, publically owned and financed TV and radio stations can operate relatively free of the constraints imposed by the free market; WHEREAS, the benefits of an unbiased news source* and a source for educational/informative programming are hopefully self-evident; WHEREAS, the BBC is generally brilliant, and a pox on anyone that says it isn't so; WHEREAS, to preserve diversity of opinion, it would be inappropriate to bring all media sources under state control (though those doesn't mean we like moguls, natch); THEREFORE, the HSP beg to propose this Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media. * Annexe to the Act: The HSP suggest that the news output of the publically owned media stations be required by law to be unbiased politically in its reporting. This should be overseen by a Bias Oversight Committee, which should be neutral, should probably be popularly elected, and should almost certainly not be appointed by the government of the day. We further propose that the publically owned media be separated as far as possible from direct government control, much as the current BBC is, the better to avoid accusations of it being a "government mouthpiece". |
Proposals
Article 1
Proposal[?] to change Radio stations.
Old value:: All radio stations are private.
Current: All radio stations are owned by independent non-profit-making cooperatives which receive no subsidies from the government.
Proposed: The government subsidises a national radio station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised radio stations are allowed.
Article 2
Proposal[?] to change Television stations.
Old value:: All television media are private.
Current: All TV stations are owned by independent non-profit-making cooperatives which receive no subsidies from the government.
Proposed: The government subsidises a national TV station for educational and informational purposes; other private non-subsidised TV stations are allowed.
Debate
These messages have been posted to debate on this bill:
| Date | 06:58:19, July 05, 2005 CET | From |  Conservative Party | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | "No" |
| Date | 18:26:19, July 05, 2005 CET | From | Libertarian Alcoholic Par-tay | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | An unbiased (or non-partisan) news source run by the government? How is a government-controlled medium supposed to be less partisan than an independant one? And if this bias control agency is truly going to reflect popular opinion, how will the stations be any different to private ones (except that they'll be funded by money we, the goverment, rob from the populace instead of the voluntary buying of those who use the service). Setting up this bias control deal and indeed setting up the various stations on the media proposed will cost a lot of money, money which will have to come from money we've taxed from the population. |
| Date | 20:04:00, July 05, 2005 CET | From |  RSDP - Democratic Front | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | Umm, you're calling this a "government-controlled medium", while in fact it is a "state-funded medium". The government has got no direct authority over it. |
| Date | 20:04:12, July 05, 2005 CET | From | RSDP - Democratic Front | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | BTW, we're in favour. ;-) |
| Date | 20:28:26, July 05, 2005 CET | From | Humanist Socialist Party | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | No-one said that the bias control agency was going to "reflect popular opinion". Its mandate would be to check that the output of the stations stations did not have *any* political bias (whether in the "popular opinion" direction or not), which is different. It wouldn't have to be popularly elected, but as government appointment would clearly be inappropriate (despite the fact that that's what the BBC has, I believe) election seemed the best choice. If there are better suggestions -- constructive ones, not wrecking amendments -- we'd be very prepared to amend the annexe. |
| Date | 10:15:20, July 06, 2005 CET | From | Freedom Party | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | BBC generally brilliant??? BBC is biased, if you cannot see that then someone needs to actually pay attention. The BBC and the TV Licence that you have to pay is a TAX, a TAX that affects the POOR people the most as £124 consists of a far greater amount of a POOR persons income than it does a richer person! |
| Date | 10:16:59, July 06, 2005 CET | From | Freedom Party | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | You can just pass a law like in Britain stating that TV stations must provide fair and equal coverage to all major political parties and must remain fair and balanced. A government controlled one is not fair and balanced. BBC political coverage is dominated by lefties, Andrew Marr writes for the Guardian FFS! |
| Date | 13:54:19, July 06, 2005 CET | From | RSDP - Democratic Front | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | Umm, the method of taxation has not yet been determined. For all we know, it may be a progressive tax method (rich people pay more, poor people pay less). And again a national TV station is not a government-contolled one. |
| Date | 19:45:58, July 06, 2005 CET | From | Humanist Socialist Party | To | Debating the Act for the Establishment of Publically Owned Media |
| Message | Andrew Marr also writes for the Telegraph (or possibly wrote -- haven't read the Torygraph in a while). |
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Voting
| Vote | Seats | ||||
| yes |
Total Seats: 160 | ||||
| no |
Total Seats: 113 | ||||
| abstain |
Total Seats: 226 |
| Random fact: Did you know you can change the official name of your nation? All you need to do is draw up a new name that is in accordance with the Nation Renaming Guide, pass a bill proposing the name change with a two-thirds majority and then post a request to Moderation on the "Renaming Requests" thread. You can change city and region names in this way too. |
| Random quote: "We need a new environmental consciousness on a global basis. To do this, we need to educate people." - Mikhail Gorbachev |