§ 8. Mr.Dempseyasked the Postmaster-General if he will establish a viewers' council to advise on the suitability of television programmes; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BennNo, Sir. Programme content is the responsibility of the Board of Governors of the B.B.C. and members of the I.T.A. The establishment by me of a viewer's council would tend to diminish the authority of the two broadcasting authorities and, in consequence, their capacity to discharge their responsibility. Also, it would raise doubt as to where responsibility lay: with the broadcasting authorities, or with the council. Each anthority has already its own General Advisory Council, and other advisory committees, through which it can sound opinion on its services.
§ Mr. DempseyYes, but is the Minister aware that these so-called advisory councils have in no way halted the growth of suggestive entertainment and of the glorification of thuggery in television, or the unsuitability of programmes at school holiday times? Would he not agree that it would be far more effective if we established a council from a very good cross-section of the British community to advise these organisations and my right hon. Friend's good self on television presentations?
§ Mr. BennNo, Sir. The fact that an advisory council does not give advice of the kind the hon. Gentleman would like 186 it to give is not a prima facie case for setting up another advisory committee.
§ Mr. JenningsWould it not be advisable if the right hon. Gentleman were to look a little closer at some of the programmes which are broadcast on television? Has he, for instance, seen the reputed successor to TW3? Does he realise that some of that programme is in extremely bad taste and in some cases is almost blasphemous, and that in an incident last week—
§ Mr. RankinToo long.
§ Mr. BennI think that the hon. Gentleman had better think this through to its logical conclusion. There are reserve powers invested in the Postmaster-General. If they are to be exercised by the Postmaster-General that means that whoever occupies my office would have the power, on the hon. Gentleman's suggestion, to censor individual progratmmes if he thought, in his judgment, for it could not be anyone else's judgment, that they were offensive to taste, or biased politically. If I were to exercise my judgment in censoring a programme which I thought politically biased or offensive, one of the first people, I think, who would object would be the hon. Gentleman himself, for our views would not coincide.
§ Mr. Victor YatesWould not my right hon. Friend agree to discuss with the broadcasting authorities whether or not a more scientific method could be arranged to decide what the public really think ought to be improved, in view of the large amount of violence which appears on television and the increasing rate of violent crime? I do think that a more scientific method ought to be devised, rather than one which depends on hundreds of viewers having to telephone the B.B.C. to object.
§ Mr. BennI very well appreciate my hon. Friend's point. Of course, each of us, as individuals, has views—I have—but it is open to all of us now to make any representation direct to the B.B.C., and this is a perfectly proper thing to be done, and is done by hon. Members, and is part of the general accountability of the B.B.C. to the public which it serves.
§ Miss Harvie AndersonIs the right hon. Gentleman aware that part of this difficulty arises from the fact that the Scottish programmes have got to take some of the London service, and that standards do differ in some respects, and that, therefore, there should be control in London of programmes which are sent to Scotland, and which are unacceptable to the Scottish way of life?
§ Mr. BennI recognise that there are difficulties of this kind, but the more difficulties the hon. Lady raises the more impossible does it become for the Postmaster-General to agree to intervene, in view of the regional difficulties which she mentions.