The Media Bill going through parliament will change the landscape for public service broadcasters — the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, STV and S4C. They are being given powers for more flexible programming and the requirement to include specific genres of programmes on religion, science and arts will be removed. Questions have been raised as to whether this endangers the provision of religious broadcasting, where there has already been a dramatic decline over the past ten years.
In this briefing, our panel discuss the bill and the campaign to ensure hours of religious programming continue to be catalogued and reviewed. Ruth Peacock hosted, with panellists:
- Bishop Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds, and lead bishop on the media in the House of Lords
- Roger Bolton, journalist and broadcaster
- Professor Kim Knott, author of ‘Media Portrayals of Religion and the Secular Sacred’
- Gareth Barr, Director of Policy and Regulation, ITV
- Mark Friend, author of BBC Religion and Ethics Review 2017
- David Strachan, trustee of Sandford St Martin Trust.
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