part time remote jobs louisville ky

date: 10/27/2002

part time remote jobs louisville ky

the human rights act could empower viewers and turn the tables on a culturally and politically biased institution. -stephen robinson.

........the editorial, wednesday, october 23, 2002.

history suggests that whenever a new medium is invented, governments immediately decide that it is extremely dangerous.

early printing presses, if permitted at all, had to be licensed. newspapers, until gladstone, were taxed at a rate that kept them out of the hands of the masses. and when radio came into being, the british broadcasting corporation was invented to make sure that state appointees could decide what should be allowed to reach the impressionable ears of the british public. the same principle, as technology advanced was applied to television. the trick was not so much to censor, or to prescribe exactly what was broadcast. it was- and is- to make us all pay a poll tax in order to have a television at all. it is called the licence fee. it costs ?12 a year for everyone with a television under the age of 75 and you are committing a crime, apparently, if you don't pay it.

if you are, say a muslim, a hindu, a supporter of israel, a biblical christian, a tory, an old labour supporter, an inhabitant of the countryside, or of most cities outside london, a member of most minorities except the fashionable ones, you will find much in the bbc's output to annoy you and little to cater for your interests. if you are educated, you will be depressed by the growing stupidity and crudity of the broadcasting. if you are a parent of young children, you will sift, with increasing difficulty to get the gold out of the prevailing dross. if you are any of these things you will observe an organisation run by two people who have been active contributors to, and supporters of, the labour party pushing a blairite view of the world- politically correct, metropolitan, europhile, produced by the rich (you pay the director general ?50,000 a year, more than twice as much as the prime minister), faintly pinkish in politics yet ruthlessly commercial in its self-promotion- and you will feel pretty angry.

and yet, as stephen robinson argues on the facing page, the real problem with the bbc does not lie with its content, but with its privileged power. much of the corporation retains high standards, and the principles of public service broadcasting, more and more traduced by "cut the crap" vulgarity, are worth trying to rescue. technological change and the current recession in television advertising, however, have brought out more strongly than ever the fact that the license fee is an oppression of free speech, commercial activity and media innovation. this it is that the bbc takes advantage of the license fee to invade a medium to which millions of licence fee payers still have no access- the internet. in doing so, it squashes new entrants to the medium who cannot possibly match its resources. virtual indistinguishable from the department of culture, media and sport, largely exempt on current plans, from the rigours of ?fcom? the bbc is on a government-supported frolic of its own, paid for by all the rest of us.

for how much longer? is the corporation in breach of the human rights act by preventing the free imparting of information? why, in short, should we pay our license fee at all? some time in the next 12 months, almost everyone reading this (even those who don't own a television) will get a demand from tv licensing for ?12. if you're not happy to pay it, point out to them that they, not you, may be breaching the law.

in the meantime, let us know your views. this newspaper runs a free country campaign. a free country should have free television. please write, or e-mail <freddom@telegraph.co.uk>.

.......................==================

do we ever hear an indian newspaper running any public campaign?

..........................000000000

part time remote jobs louisville ky part time remote jobs louisville ky Service Unavailable

Service Unavailable


HTTP Error 503. The service is unavailable.