An extraordinary article was published on the government’s website last week. “Handling media attention after a major incident” was released on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport and the Home Office, and offers advice to the general population about how to deal with media inquiries.
There are a few points in the article that stand out. Firstly, there is this sentence: “You should remember that you do not have to answer any questions, but the media could use any information that you give them – even if you tell them something in confidence or off the record.” Other striking parts are the suggestion that “you might wish to consider seeking the advice of a lawyer” or hiring a PR agency if speaking about sensitive matters, or that dealing with the media can be “distressing and daunting”.
The first sentence suggests that journalists behave dishonestly, while the others suggest professionals could be needed when dealing with the press.
Now these may be fair points: but should they really be made by the DCMS and the Home Office? Newspapers are regulated and run independently from government, and the BBC and media watchdog Ofcom consider themselves standalone organisations.
There is something unsettling about any government offering direct advice to its citizens about how to deal with the media.
There’s more where the Mash-up came from
The pressure on British broadcasters to invest more time, energy and cash into original children’s programmes was cranked up again between Christmas and New Year with the launch of a £60m government fund to finance new content.
This fund is the latest stage in efforts by the government and Ofcom to improve the genre; Ofcom has already launched a review of kids’ TV.
A generation of young people in Britain are growing up on a diet of Netflix, Amazon and YouTube rather than domestic programmes. Expect the BBC, ITV, C4 and C5 to do more in 2018: the return of Saturday children’s shows to main BBC channels – through Saturday Mash-Up! on BBC2 – is just the start.
