Tony Benn Quotes

The perception of broadcasters as community trustees should be replaced by a view of broadcasters as marketplace participants.

I am not against privatisation of the media channels but I stand for a strong regulation and transparency.

I think it is absolutely essential in a democracy to have competition in the media, a lot of competition, and we seem to be moving away from that.

Almost anything is better than three network TV outlets completely controlling the national discourse with their nightly broadcasts. We've moved a long way from that, and that's important.

I think if you open the door to government control of television, then you let in a host of questions about rights.

We need a free media, not just freedom of speech.

We are developing a media policy which would be about breaking up single ownership of too many sources of information so that we have a multiplicity of sources.

Vigorous independent and critical media are indispensable in a democracy.

Broadcasting is really too important to be left to the broadcasters and somehow we must find some new way of using radio and television to allow us to talk to each other.

We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital.

Americans have this patrician attitude that they have a God-given right to produce these boring newspapers and not be challenged to do it. 'The New York Times' really thinks it's the BBC.

A functional media is as important to democratic freedom as voting.

Our free enterprise system of disseminating information is collectively referred to as The Media. But there is no collective.

Freedom of the news media must be subordinated to the overriding needs of Singapore, and to the primacy of purpose of an elected government.

Certain media-related developments in the country are raising questions regarding its objectivity and credibility. Paid news and the declining roles of the editors and their editorial freedom is posing a major threat to the Indian media.

As far as the media is concerned, I wouldn't shoot anything down.

So the system we have in radio and television today is the direct result of government policies that have been made in our name, in the name of the people, on our behalf, but without our informed consent.

I think the idea of creating a television news source that is not beholden to corporate interests is nirvana.

I was for many years myself a journalist and it is not appropriate to say a programme should not be broadcast.

Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news.

Britain is a very small country with a very large press.

Our founding fathers could not have foreseen that freedom of the press might eventually be threatened just as much by media consolidation as by government.

To be honest with you, I worry about concentration of ownership in media, where you have a handful of media conglomerates largely controlling what we see, hear and read.

A free and truly independent press - fiercely independent when necessary - is the red beating heart of freedom and democracy.

Well, many of us believe that excessive media concentration is a subject that ought to be addressed, and it is, of course, the intention of the majority party not to allow that to be discussed.