News from the Centre for Citizenship
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BBC Allowed To Take £2bn Less Than Wanted
Although the government is to increase the TV licence fee from £131.50 to £151.50 by 2012 the British Broadcasting Corp. is complaining that it will be £2bn short of the money it needs. Director-General Mark Thompson has claimed that it will be unable to improve the poor quality of its programmes without this money. The…
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Republican Australians Smart
Australia may have won the Ashes but Australian republicans are smarting. When England won in 2005 Liz Windsor thanked each player. But there have been no congratulations for the Australian victors from their head of state. The problem is that Australians do not have their own head of state. They share the English Windsor with…
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Setback for BBC and Jowell
The BBC’s tax on TV viewers is to go up by much less than it demanded, according to press reports. The BBC asked first for an increase of inflation plus 2.3% per year for seven years. Later it scaled this back to inflation plus 1.8%. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has won an average annual increase…
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Democracy May Come To Canadian Senate
Canadians may soon be able to elect their Senators if Prime Minister Stephen Harper has his way. The Canadian constitution requires that Senators be appointed by the Prime Minister and serve until aged 75. Mr. Harper intends to get around this with a law stating that only those who have won an election should be…
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No Speech Is Free Speech, High Court Rules
The High Court has ruled that a law that prevents political advertising on British TV is not in breach of the right to free speech. Britain does not have constitutional protection for free speech, nor a written constitution, nor a constitution approved by the people. Political adverts in newspapers and magazines are not illegal.
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Canadian Soldier Challenges Windsor Toast
Captain Aralt Mac Giolla Chainnigh of the Canadian army is suing the Federal Government and the chief of the defence staff to stop Canadian soldiers having to toast Elizabeth Windsor, who is the hereditary head of state of both Canada and Britain. He has been using the military grievance system for five years to have…
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Licence Payers Pay For Information Suppression
The BBC is spending income from TV licence fees on an expensive legal battle to keep secret an internal report. Two barristers were employed by the state media giant in a two-day hearing by an Information Tribunal. Ruling against the BBC, the Tribunal said that the report on the Corporation’s coverage of the Middle East…
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Italian “Prince” Admits Killing
The admirers of monarchy might benefit from reading about the antics of the man who might be “king” of Italy had that republic not freed itself from the absurdities of hereditary right in a 1946 referendum. According to newspaper reports Vitorio Emanuele, son of Italy’s last “king”, has been recorded admitting to murder. Mr. Emanuele…
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BBC Survey Exposed
According to research commissioned by the Department of Media people are “on average” willing to pay almost £163 a year at today’s prices for the BBC licence. This is more than the state broadcaster has asked to government to agree. The current fee payable by those who ask the BBC’s permission to watch TV is…
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British Government Opposes Free Speech
The British government is opposing an application to the Hight Court for a ruling that a ban on political adverts on TV and radio breaches human rights. According to the Financial Times the government believes “there is no absolute right for anyone to be able to broadcast his or her opinions under human rights law…