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22|05|07

Minutes Of The Fiftieth Meeting Of The Ofcom Content Board Held At Riverside House, London On Tuesday 22 May 2007

Present

Philip Graf Chairman
Adam Singer Deputy Chairman
Richard Ayre Member (Item 2 – 39)
Sue Balsom Member
Chris Banatvala Member
Millie Banerjee Member
Pam Giddy Member
Anthony Lilley Member
Paul Moore Member
Tim Suter Member
Joyce Taylor Member

In Attendance

Other Ofcom Colleagues

Apologies

Kath Worrall Member and Chair Fairness Committee
Graham Howell Secretary to the Corporation

Content and Standards Group Report

1. Members were UPDATED in relation to current Content and Standards people and policy issues.

2. Members were INFORMED that one of the Content and Standards Group PAs was leaving on Thursday and colleagues wished to take this opportunity to thank her for all her hard work and the valuable contribution she had made to the group.

PSB Review: update

3. Members were UPDATED in relation to the PSB Review and were INFORMED that this was now to be brought forward to September 2007.

4. Members were reminded that some of the key areas of work being carried out on PSB-related Ofcom projects included the Channel 4 Financial Review, Future of News and Children’s TV.

5. Members were INFORMED that the following issues were among those to be considered as part of the Review:

The overall purpose of the PSB Review and the role it would play – post switchover world.
Plurality
The funding requirements: ongoing role of spectrum; whether direct funding was necessary and contestable funding.
When interevention would be considered and the impact this would have on Government policy.

6. Members NOTED that the first consultation was likely to be published in January 2008, with the second by the summer 2008 and the final statement in January 2009. During this process the PSB Review team would be seeking advice and input from the Content Board.

7. Members were UPDATED on the status of the Channel 4 Financial Review; responses to the LEK Report were currently being reviewed by Ofcom, and the aim was to issue a statement towards the end of June.

8. So far as the PSP was concerned, a series of public discussions and seminars were to be held, which would generate further work internally; the issues would then be brought to a conclusion at the Content Board. One key issue was whether the PSP should relate to public service content (on other platforms) as well as to broadcasting.

Content Board Annual Report

9. Members RECEIVED three sections of the Ofcom draft Annual Report 2006/7, due to be published on 12 July 2007: Section A: Annual Report of the Content Board; Section C: Fairness Committee and Content Sanctions Committee and Section D: Constitution of the Content Board and Remuneration.

10. Members APPROVED the overall tone and messages in these sections of the Report. It was pointed out that in Section A the date for the PSB Review would need updating, and that the reference to ‘linear’ services should be omitted from the text on AVMS. Members were asked to send any final comments on the drafting to [witheld from published minutes] by close of play on Wednesday, 23 May.

Media Literacy: landscape and priorities

11. Members were UPDATED on the Adult Learning initiatives and the recent Awards Ceremony, which had been very successful and proved an effective way of engaging with the community. Members NOTED that details of these would be included in the Media Literacy bulletin to be posted on the Ofcom website. Members SUGGESTED that such initiatives could be included in the Annual Report in the future as examples of the ways in which Ofcom engaged with the community.

12. Members were directed to Table 1 and Table 2 of the paper which outlined the key Media Literacy competencies and Ofcom’s responsibilities to promote Media Literacy. The Media Literacy Team proposed that Ofcom’s role for the promotion of Media Literacy should be to provide leadership and include achieving objectives through leveraging partnerships with a range of stakeholders, including active engagement with politicians.

13. Members were asked to provide feedback on the proposed Media Literacy strategy and in particular the priorities for the promotion of Media Literacy over the next three years.

14. Members discussed the material and made the following main points:

That we should encourage active engagement with agents of stakeholders as this would help to get the key messages across.
That consideration should be given to developing (with DCMS, etc) a template to assist such agents to access the money available.
That citizenship needed to be linked into media literacy, as a way to get to the decision-makers.
That consideration needed to be given to developing an appropriate strategy to gain access to people within the community who did not fall into the priority groups identified; for example, someone not working in an office environment for a year may find that the technology had moved on during that time.
The importance of having an effective media campaign to raise awareness about Media Literacy. The ‘5 A Day’ campaign was one such campaign that had proved very effective, as it delivered a clear and simple message. It was SUGGESTED that broadcasters could be utilised to deliver the message to raise awareness.
That further consideration should be given to the current priorities, which were very ambitious; it was questioned whether these should be prioritised more narrowly. It was emphasised that the ambition, whilst laudable, would flow into resourcing and sequencing issues.

15. The above points from Members were NOTED and it was AGREED that these would be taken into account by the Team.

16. Members were advised that, following the Content Board meeting, the Team intended to finalise the Media Literacy strategy and priorities, as well as the business plan. It would bring a paper back to the Content Board in June for approval and publish a statement on the Media Literacy strategy in September.

17. Members commented on the high quality of the paper and thanked the Team for its work.

Children in programmes project: update

18. Members were UPDATED on progress of the Children in programmes project, which aimed to produce guidance to clarify the appropriate due care required by Rules 1.26 and 1.27 of the Broadcasting Code (broadcasters’ duty of care over the emotional and physical welfare and dignity of under 18s participating in programmes and to ensure they are not caused unnecessary distress or anxiety when so involved).

19. Members were INFORMED that the nationwide research was currently taking place involving broadcasters, to help gain an understanding of current industry practice, child experts to provide advice on children’s participation and focus groups with parents and children.

20. The project team intended to go to the Policy Executive on 9 November 2007 and the Content Board on 20 November 2007 for approval.

Citizen interests

21. Members RECEIVED an Arena paper which provided a framework for making future decisions about when Ofcom should intervene to further Citzens’ interests and how to balance different sets of interests. The purpose of the Arena paper was to promote discussion of the issue both internally and with stakeholders.

22. It was NOTED that Ofcom’s consumer policy statement had set out what it believed to be in the interests of consumers, however to date Ofcom had not published an equivalent policy statement about what was in the interests of citizens. The paper aimed to clarify Ofcom’s role in furthering citizen interests, which could then be reflected in policy decisions. There was a need to be more explicit in the difference between consumers and citizens interests. The paper should demonstrate how Ofcom approached both consumers and citizens.

23. The paper was well RECEIVED by the Content Board. Members discussed the material and the following were amongst the main points made:

Citizenship needed to be linked into media literacy.
The paper made reference to the terms ‘citizens’ and ‘citizenship’. These two terms could be interepreted in two very different ways and it was SUGGESTED that only the term ‘citizen’ should be used in the paper.
[witheld from published minutes]
The above point should not delay launch of the paper although, pending such debate, it should be ensured that the paper did not raise expectations too high.
The paper should demonstrate how Ofcom had approached its role thus far in furthering citizen interests.
The paper made very little mention of radio – for example, community radio was relevant to the furthering of citizens’ interests.

24. It was AGREED that changes would be made to the paper to reflect comments made by Members. The paper would then be sent to Policy Executive for approval, following which the paper would be published.

Introduction to Executive Colleagues

25. Members were given a brief overview of the current programme of work of the consumer policy group. Some of the key policy areas being addressed were consumer protection and redress, empowerment, digital inclusion and stakeholder communication.

Standards Report

26. The Content Board RECEIVED an update on programmes which had been attracting complaints, as well as an update on the status of current Fairness and Content Sanctions cases.

27. Members REQUESTED that the DVDs issued to them should be produced in a format which was readable on any system.

Members’ Interests

28. There were no new declarations for the Register.

Minutes of 24 April 2007 and Matters Arising

29. The minutes of the Content Board meeting held on 24 April 2007 were AGREED, with no amendments.

30. There were no matters arising from the minutes.

Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas

31. Members NOTED the Rolling Forward Plan of Content Board Agendas.

Ofcom Board Meetings of 27 March 2007 and 17 April 2007

32. Members RECEIVED a report on the current Ofcom issues and NOTED the minutes of Ofcom Board meetings held on 27 March and 17 April 2007.

Report back from Radio Licensing Committee

33. Members RECEIVED a report on the current issues that the Radio Licensing Committee were involved with. Members NOTED that the last FM licence had been awarded and 6 community licences had been awarded in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

34. Members were INFORMED that the Radio Festival would be taking place between 9 – 11 July 2007. Content Board Members were advised if they wished to register and take advantage of the reduced rate they needed to do so by Thursday, 24 May.

Papers for information

35. Members NOTED the following papers for information:

• The future of children’s programming
• Audio and visual content: update
• Matters for External Communcation

Minutes for Noting

36. Members NOTED the minutes of the following meetings:

• Advisory Committee for Nations & Regions (England) – 7 March 2007
• Consumer Panel – 20 March and 24 April 2007

Any Other Business

37. The Chairman INFORMED Members that the July Content Board date fell on 24 July, which was quite late in the month. The Chairman SUGGESTED that Members could decide to hold the meeting on the alternative date of 17 July (the same day as the Ofcom Board) or, given that there may be insufficient agenda items, cancel the July meeting. It was AGREED that the Secretary would liaise with Members to confirm which arrangement would be more suitable (subsequently AGREED as meeting on 16 July).

38. The Chairman INFORMED Members that a number of external speakers had been invited to the September Conference to speak about the Future of Content Regulation.

Date of Next meeting

39.The next meeting of the Content Board is planned for Tuesday 26 June 2007 at Riverside House, London.