No. 29 ETHNIC MINORITIES
Employment and Equality
Section 38 of the Broadcasting Act 1990 on the promotion of equal opportunities states that licences for Channels 3, 4 and 5 must include conditions requiring the licensee:
- to make arrangements for promoting, in relation to employment by him, equality of opportunity between men and women and between persons of different racial groups; and
- to review those arrangements from time to time.
(“Racial group” has the same definition as in the Race Relations Act 1976.)
In the ITC Invitation to apply for Channel 3 licences applicants were asked how they would meet this requirement in their approach to recruitment, training and promotion, and whether they would provide any special facilities. The ITC also stated that it would be appropriate for information on the way in which they were complying with this requirement, to be published each year in the licensee’s annual report. Further details of individual licensees’ performance are in the ITC annual report and accounts 2002 and in the ITC note: Equal opportunities (37).
The ITC is required under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to promote race equality. The ITC is in the process of producing a Race Equality Scheme which will demonstrate how it discharges this new statutory obligation.
Programming
Section 14(3) of the Broadcasting Act 1990 allows the ITC to determine whether Channel 3 licensees should provide different programmes for different parts of the licence area and for different communities living within the area. In the Invitation to apply for regional Channel 3 licences the ITC stressed that applicants would be expected to demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the region they intended to serve and, through their programme proposals and related activities, show a strong commitment to meeting the needs and interests of people living there. In this context, the ITC expects that the ethnic diversity of the region be represented. Individual proposals are incorporated as licence conditions, and broadcasters are expected to include this aspect of their output in their Statements and Reviews of Programme Policy published each year.
A recent response to this requirement has been The Cultural Diversity Network(CDN) formed by major broadcasters to address minority ethnic representation both on and off-screen, which has established a quarterly newsletter and has held a public review of the Network’s 2-year progress against its 5-year Action Plan. This showed some improvement on-screen but slow progress in employment issues
In 1998, Channel Four’s revised licence included a commitment to provide an average of at least three hours a week of multicultural programmes. Some of these must be scheduled in peak time. However, the 2002 Annual Report notes that while the amount of multicultural programmes has increased, the proportion of these programmes scheduled during peak has declined and that the amount of these shown after midnight has increased to 73%.
Channel Four’s introduction of a ‘compliance clause’ for independent production companies submitting proposals, promises to encourage equal opportunities and ethnic representation in staffing and in the content of programmes they commission. Most of the major broadcasters through the CDN have also decided to operate a similar system. The Channel has also set targets for the staffing of independent commissions and for on-screen representation.
ITC Programme Code. Although the Broadcasting Act 1990 does not refer to the representation of minority ethnic people in general programming, the ITC encourages licensees to have policies in place to ensure proper representation. The ITC programme code gives guidance on offence, including advice on the use of racist terms, the inclusion of insensitive comment and stereotypical portrayal. It also states that programme schedules should give a fair reflection of the contribution to society of all races.
Cable and Satellite
Various services in operation are designed for ethnic communities in this country and, in many cases, across Europe. There are two services for Chinese viewers and others transmitting in Arabic, Farsi and Japanese. There are 20 services, offering news, entertainment and films in English and a variety of Indo-Pakistani languages and three RSLs (see ITC Note 43) which serve the Asian market. At present, one licensee, BEN targets the African Caribbean community.
Research
In March 1996 the ITC published two volumes of research focusing on minority ethnic people and television: Ethnic minorities on TV, and Television: Ethnic Minorities’ View. Then in 1999, the ITC and the BSC jointly commissioned Include Me In, which looked at the views of minority ethnic, audiences and independent producers, on television, and the commissioning process for minority ethnic and other programmes.
ITC research published in 2001 includes ‘Public Service Broadcasting: What Viewers Want’ based on viewer comments on the multicultural output of commercial independent television: and ‘Boxed in: Offence from Negative Stereotyping in TV Advertising’ which includes comment on ethnic representation.
The latest research on minority ethnic representation commissioned jointly by the ITC, BSC, BBC and the Radio Authority, Multicultural Broadcasting: Concept & Reality, was published in 2002. This qualitative research examined attitudes towards multicultural broadcasting held by the audience and by practitioners in the radio and television industries, and briefly explored attitudes towards multiculturalism within advertising.
Further References
Additional ITC & External Publications
ITC Library Bibliography: Ethnic Minorities and Broadcasting (Updated 2000)
PAREKH, Bhikhu, The Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain, The Runnymede Trust, 2000
CUMBERBATCH, Guy. Top 10 TV,. Communications Research Group (Commissioned by CRE). 2001
WATSON, Paula. Pitch Black. Paula Watson, London. 2001
ITV’s, Cultural Diversity Guide, London 2003
June 2003
|