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Need for new broadcasting concept for Gibraltar
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Talking Point:
The problem with broadcasting in Gibraltar is that there is only one station; and the danger is that this monopoly could become an even bigger monopoly. Gibraltar does not want more of the same in a different wrapping.
Already we have seen how the Government has poured more public money into it. Through its subsidy, GBC is competiting unfairly in the online news media against those who have been providing such services over the years at no cost to the taxpayer.
How can this State Aided set-up be right, fair and reasonable?
Let's face it, for what it produces, GBC is a rather small broadcaster, over-staffed, top heavy and over-subsidised. GBC-TV is on air only 4 hours daily, with just one or two local programmes, including the repeated Newswatch, which trundles on like a Second World War tank.
The endemic anomaly existing in Gibraltar is that the paying public has to endure just one local terrestrial broadcaster. This cannot be a shining example of a democractic, free society. It is the kind of situation that exists in dictatorships, in the same way if in Gibraltar there could only be one newspaper, one political party etc.
Thus, the Government should not be talking of changing the GBC Act,to effectively perpetuate this broadcasting anomaly, of making the monopoly more monopolistic, but it should be talking of reforming broadcasting in its widest sense, where a station called GBC can have a role to play, but equally so other television and radio stations and services.
What Gibraltar urgently needs is not the perpetuation of a monopoly called GBC, but a new broadcasting structure based on a Gibraltar Broadcasting Authority which would regulate all broadcasters. The Authority could be part of the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority which, fortunately, is already headed by a former broadcaster Paul Canesssa.
The Government, if it believes in a truly free and democratic society which we are sure it does, must stop and think.
The King report was simply an exercise on how to perpetuate GBC and how to make it a much bigger monopoly. It is the same as if in Britain only the BBC could exist as a broadcaster.
The report noted that there was a 'job for life' mentality at GBC,(obviously encouraged by the nature of GBC) something that has no place in broadcasting. GBC, it added, must be an efficient, lean operation,obviously with adequate staff levels, but a different way of doing things. Roles do not relate to BBC Regional Stations so there is no exact template on which parity could be based, even if it were desirable, adding that GBC employees should be appropriately but not excessively remunerated.
That, looking ahead, GBC might have not one but two radio stations is a perpetuation of the monopolistic mentatily that exists; more of the same. When what Gibraltar needs is a vibrant, pluralist broadcasting society.
A Broadcasting Authority regulates the different broadcasting models and awards frequencies which belong to the Authority, and not to GBC or any other broadcaster. A step in the right direction is that the Government has decided that in future there will be a feed of parliamentary procedures available to all those who require it, and not just GBC to the exclusion of others.
Likewise, in Britain, the transmitters are not owned by individual stations, but are available to all. It is fairer and more acceptable if the transmitting arrangements are subsidised because all broadcasters derive equal benefits, and not just one.
If need be GBC can be the public service broadcaster, with one television and one radio station. In the case of Gibraltar and its circumstances it would have to be decided how many others can enter the broadcasting world.
GBC can broadcast what is required of a public service broadcaster;others, both television and radio, would widen the scope, and broadcast a specific range of programmes. There may be a case for a fresher and more modern presentational style.
In all cases, the broadcasters, like any other business, must run their operations within their own financial yardsticks and make ends meet in the public interest.
06-08-12
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