Page 66 - An Introduction to Political Communication Second Edition

THE POLITICAL MEDIA

democratic process. Governments, while frequently falling out with
elements of the press, have been constrained from imposing legal
regulation that could be interpreted as ‘political censorship’.
Restrictions on the freedom of the press have been limited to issues
of ‘national security’, such as the reportage of official secrets, and
certain ethical infringements, such as libel. The areas of reportage
subject to constraints are the subject of ongoing debate, and as this
book went to press, the introduction of new restrictions designed to
protect individual privacy was still very much on the agenda in Britain.
The new Labour government was committed to the adoption of
European human rights legislation, as well as, for the first time in
Britain, freedom of information legislation.

THE BROADCASTING ENVIRONMENT

While the press has from the beginning functioned essentially as a
set of capitalist businesses, broadcasting has taken a variety of
organisational forms. In the United States radio and later television
—like the press—were developed commercially, funded by advertising
revenue. In Soviet Russia and the fascist states of the 1930s and
1940s, broadcasting was co-opted as a propaganda tool of
authoritarian government. In Britain, however, broadcasting was
conceived and born as a ‘utility to be developed as a national service
in the public interest’ (Scannell and Cardiff, 1991, p.8).
Development in this form was preferred for one main reason;
the perception, amongst politicians, social scientists and
intellectuals, that broadcasting was a uniquely powerful medium.
Too powerful, in fact, to be placed in the hands of untrammelled
commercial interests. Too powerful, also, to be vulnerable to
political abuse. None of the parties in Britain’s multi-party
democracy wished to permit the possibility of any of its rivals
gaining control of broadcasting for the pursuit of its own interests.
Thus, the British Broadcasting Corporation came into being as a
publicly-funded (from taxation, in the form of a licence fee) but
politically independent institution, protected from interference in
its activities by the government of the day. Even when commercial
principles were allowed to enter the British broadcasting arena with
the establishment of the Independent Television network in 1954,
legislation was passed to prohibit its output from being subjected
to political or economic pressure.

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