Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with independent news publishers regarding the news publisher definition in the Online Safety Bill; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Ministers and officials have consulted extensively with a wide range of stakeholders during the drafting of the Bill.
Online Safety legislation has been designed to safeguard access to journalistic content. News publishers’ content will be exempted from platforms’ new online safety duties. The criteria against which an organisation qualifies as a publisher is set in the draft Online Safety Bill. If an organisation meets these criteria, then its content will be exempt.
The Bill will also impose a duty on the biggest and riskiest companies, Category 1 companies, to safeguard all journalistic content shared on their platform. Through this duty, these platforms will need to have systems in place to ensure they take into account the importance of the free expression of journalistic content when operating their services.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the broadcasting standards set out in the Enterprise Act 2002, if he will make an assessment of adequacy of Comcast's (a) compliance and (b) customer service record in the (i) UK and (ii) US in relation to that company's bid to take over Sky Plc.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Secretary of State has powers to intervene in certain media mergers on public interest grounds under the Enterprise Act 2002. The decision to intervene is quasi-judicial and must be taken independently based on all relevant evidence available. Guidance on the Enterprise Act 2002 sets out the scope of the broadcasting and cross-media public interest considerations. Any transaction will be looked at on its merits, on a case-by-case basis. Due to the quasi-judicial nature of the decision, it would be inappropriate to comment further in relation to any specific transaction.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will bring forward legislative proposals for a British Sign Language Bill to promote the use of British Sign Language.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
There are no plans at present to bring forward such proposals. However the Government cares very much about this issue. The Interdepartmental Ministerial Group on Disability meets regularly to review ways to improve communications and access to information for all people in our communities. The Minister for Disabilities, Mark Harper, chairs the group, which has its secretariat in the Department for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Ian Paisley (Democratic Unionist Party - North Antrim)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will launch an inquiry into the future of local newspapers; and if he will take steps to prevent further closures of such newspapers.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
There are currently no plans to launch an inquiry into the future of local newspapers, but we are actively considering steps to protect the vibrancy and diversity of this vitally important sector.