The boss of the broadcast regulator has expressed concern about how the chase for audience ratings is harming the industry
Television has become more “exploitative and cruel”, according to Michael Grade, the chair of the broadcasting regulator, Ofcom.
“The exploitation dial has been switched up more and more for ratings,” said the peer and former chair of the BBC board. “It makes me mad. I really don’t like it or enjoy it.
Continue reading...Former BBC chair will lead watchdog even though report said his knowledge of social media and online safety clearly lacked depth
Michael Grade has been confirmed as chair of the communications watchdog despite MPs warning that he has a “clear lack of depth” of knowledge about social media and online safety.
The former BBC chair will lead Ofcom, which will play a key role in regulating large social media platforms and search engines in the UK, as the body charged with implementing the landmark online safety bill. However, the digital, culture, media and sport committee said on Friday that it was concerned by Lord Grade’s admission this week that he does not use social media but is aware of how it works thanks to his children.
Continue reading...Latest updates: the Labour leader suggests it is in the public’s interest if the prime minister’s wife is fined over Partygate
Clive Efford (Lab) is asking the questions now.
Q: You have expressed strong views in the past. Is that a problem?
I described the licence fee as regressive. I didn’t think that was an opinion, I thought that was a statement of fact, actually.
Continue reading...Culture secretary Nadine Dorries is expected to decide who will oversee UK media regulator this week
Michael Grade has emerged as the favourite to become the next Ofcom chair, with the culture secretary expected to make a final decision this week on who will oversee the UK’s media regulator.
Appointing the veteran media executive and Tory politician as boss of the organisation would end a chaotic and embarrassing appointment process. The search has taken almost two years as a result of a series of botched attempts to hand the role to former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre.
Continue reading...Shareholder owed £2.5m wants administrators brought in at firm now chaired by Lord Grade
Unexplained personal and business loans to the Duchess of York of more than £500,000 from an entertainment investment company were a “matter for investigation,” a high court judge has been told.
Gate Ventures loaned Sarah Ferguson at least £287,577 personally, and loaned £232,003 to Ginger & Moss, her upmarket tea, dinnerware and jewellery venture, court documents showed.
Continue reading...Michael Grade and Danny Cohen hit out at ‘unjustifiably offensive’ News at Ten piece
The former BBC chairman Michael Grade and Danny Cohen, its former director of television, have joined criticism of the broadcaster over an “unjustifiably offensive” News at Ten report that appeared to link Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Holocaust.
Orla Guerin, the BBC’s international correspondent, made the reference at the end of an interview with Holocaust survivor Rena Quint ahead of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
Continue reading...Simon Hart named new Welsh secretary as prime minister announces that Morgan – who stood down as MP – will get life peerage
Here’s a host more middle and junior-ranking ministerial appointments just announced by No 10:
A mooted plan to merge the department for international development (DfID) and the foreign office (FCO) risks allowing British aid money to be spent on “UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives”, rather than on helping the world’s poorest people, more than 100 charities warn.
Related: Johnson to tell new Tory MPs they must repay public’s trust
Merging DfID with the FCO would risk dismantling the UK’s leadership on international development and humanitarian aid. It suggests we are turning our backs on the world’s poorest people, as well as some of the greatest global challenges of our time: extreme poverty, climate change and conflict. UK aid risks becoming a vehicle for UK foreign policy, commercial and political objectives, when it first and foremost should be invested to alleviate poverty.
By far the best way to ensure that aid continues to deliver for those who need it the most is by retaining DfID as a separate Whitehall department, with a secretary of state for international development, and by pledging to keep both independent aid scrutiny bodies: the Independent Commission for Aid Impact and the International Development Select Committee.
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