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WALES TUC delegates voted overwhelmingly today to fight the privatisation of Channel 4.
An emergency motion moved by the NUJ’s David Nicholson said the Tory bid to privatise the public-service broadcaster, which is entirely funded by private-sector advertising and takes no public money, was motivated by “spite and an ovewhelming urge to further enrich the super-rich.”
Media minister Nadine Dorries had lied repeatedly to try to justify the sell-off, he noted, claiming “almost all” responses to a consultation on Channel 4’s future were in favour of privatisation when 96 per cent were in fact against.
Privatisation would undermine media diversity and move money and investment out of creative industries, he said.
Seconding, Equity’s Simon Curtiss said the logic of privatisation was “censorship through the profit motive,” noting it would restrict the range of voices heard in broadcast media.
Britain was moving away from a media based on universal access to terrestrial channels to a stratified model dominated by expensive pay-to-view services, he noted, and privatisation of Channel 4 would further undermine democratic access to news and entertainment.