The Greens have joined Labour in wanting state control of all media:
The Green Party wants to make independent media watchdog the Press Council answerable to the Government.
The idea, outlined in the party’s broadcasting policy, involves creating a “Broadcasting Commission” that would set, monitor and enforce rules such as minimum local content quotas.
The policy document also suggests the Greens would want the commission to have ultimate authority over the Press Council.
While the Greens say they support “responsible industry self-regulation” as the best system for regulating media content, “appropriate safeguards and incentives must be in place to ensure that responsible self-regulation is effective at controlling negative content”.
To that end, the Greens would bring the Advertising Standards Authority, Broadcasting Standards Authority and the Press Council into “a common framework based on the principle of responsible self-regulation”.
Why is it that the left-wing all dance to the same tune when it comes to freedom of the media. They want, to use Clare Curran’s phrase, to “control the message”, and what better way to do it than by controlling and regulating the media and press through statutory bodies.
When you hear the Greens or Labour use phrases like “responsible industry self-regulation” what they are really saying is that the current state of affairs is irresponsible and distinctly unsatisfactory from their warped world view.
