UK cabinet clash in censor row
Former culture secretary Sajid Javid has publicly condemned Home Secretary Theresa May’s plans to censor British broadcasting in order to combat extremism.
Javid, who has taken over from Vince Cable as business secretary, had written to Prime Minister David Cameron expressing his concerns.
He said the proposals being outlined by Theresa May would force Ofcom from the role of regulator to the “role of a censor” slamming the ideas as “a fundamental shift in the way UK broadcasting is regulated.”
Javid and May are seen as intense rivals for the Tory leadership in a post-Cameron scenario. There have been rumors of tension and rifts between the two and this incident exposes those tensions. In his letter, Javid went as far to say that “It should be noted that other countries with a pre-transmission regulatory regime are not known for their compliance with rights relating to freedom of expression and government may not wish to be associated with such regimes.”
It is not clear what the outcome has been following this cabinet clash. It certainly sheds light on the idea that it was simply the Liberal Democrats that were refraining the Tories in government from lurching to the right. While in government, the Liberal Democrats used to insist that they were the ones making the government more liberal and accountable. But it seems they were not the only ones.
The Queen’s speech is expected to include the increased powers of the media regulator. It is understood that the speech will be more vague than Theresa May would have liked, talking about the need to “strengthen the role of Ofcom to take action against channels which broadcast extremist content”.
Theresa May challenged the BBC’s decision to interview radical preacher Anjem Choudary in the wake of the murder of Lee Rigby in 2013, but did not go as far as implementing pre-regulation of the media. It is clear that she wants to go much further in the coming years.
LM/HSN
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