We have never been closer to state control of the press

I must confess that I have not watched the development of Ofcom with the care I should have. In the distance I heard the voices of colleagues muttering that the new media regulator would interfere in the freedom of the press, but I chose not to listen. I thought that Ofcom, as the successor of the Independent Television Commission, the Radio Authority, the Broadcasting Standards Commission, Oftel and the Radio Communications Agency, would concern itself with issues which do not on the whole concern the rest of us very much. Dear reader, I have let you down.

Ofcom opened for business on 29 December with a spanking new office and an enormous staff. The first thing we learnt was that the regulator had awarded more than 70 of its staff contracts worth more than £100,000 a year in pay and perks. This was significantly in excess of Ofcom’s earlier estimates. Evidently this new arm of the state will be quite a little gravy train. Lord Currie, the chairman, and, it so happens, a good friend of Gordon Brown’s, will be paid £133,000 a year for a four-day week. Stephen Carter, the regulator’s chief executive, receives £250,000 a year.

Well, let’s not get too worked up about other people’s salaries. Much more disturbing are the draft guidelines governing newspaper takeovers which, without beating about the bush, Ofcom has already issued. Imagine that a company wishes to take over a newspaper group. To be more precise, imagine that the newspaper group owns the Daily Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator, titles which may shortly be on the auction block. In that event, Ofcom has a duty to advise the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on whether the acquisition is in the public interest.