The Sky's The Limit

If the price of permitting Rupert Murdoch to acquire the rest of Sky is to be the requirement that Sky divest itself of Sky News, then Murdoch is manifestly considered an unfit and improper person to own a national news channel outright (quite a good one, actually).

Where does that leave his wholly owned subsidiaries, David Cameron and the Metropolitan Police? That Andy Coulson is not already in prison proves conclusively that the latter has been paid off. That he was ever employed in Downing Street says much the same thing of the former.

And how, in that case, can Murdoch be a fit and proper person to own newspapers? As for independent national directors, who will they be, appointed by whom and answerable to whom? He was made to have them when he bought The Times (again, how can someone deemed to need them be appropriate to own a paper at all?), and they still exist. When in London, Murdoch attends editorial conferences at The Times.

Now that this debate is open, we need to ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one national daily newspaper. To ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one national weekly newspaper. To ban any person or other interest from owning or controlling more than one television station. To re-regionalise ITV under a combination of municipal and mutual ownership. And to apply that same model (but with central government replacing local government, subject to very strict parliamentary scrutiny) to Channel Four.

Furthermore, the license fee should be made optional, with as many adults as wished to pay it at any given address free to do so, including those who did not own a television set but who greatly valued, for example, Radio Four. The Trustees would then be elected by and from among the license-payers. Candidates would have to be sufficiently independent to qualify in principle for the remuneration panels of their local authorities. Each license-payer would vote for one, with the top two elected.

The electoral areas would be Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and each of the nine English regions. The Chairman would be appointed by the relevant Secretary of State, with the approval of the relevant Select Committee. And the term of office would be four years. You would not need to be a member of the Trust (i.e., a license-payer) to listen to or watch the BBC, just as you do not need to be a member of the National Trust to visit its properties, or a member of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to be rescued by its boats.

Something similar for the independent national directors of Sky News? And of The Times? As I say, this debate is now open.