Recently Ofcom has come under pressure from broadcasters (particularly Channel Five) to allow the equivalent of 'shock jocks' on British television, and although the broadcasters' argument centres principally around the noble concept of 'freedom of speech' the underlying reason is more likely to be that a relaxation of the rules would permit cheaply produced and highly controversial programming to be shown during the daytime.
Incidentally the notion of 'one-sided broadcasting' in the UK is not a new one; programmes like The Friday Alternative presented alternative views that technically weren't 'balanced' within the programme or series, although it might have been argued at the time that the series was there to provide political balance to certain other programmes within the Channel 4 schedule.
Such 'opinion pieces' work well and are effective if (and only if) they are presented in the context of a well balanced and planned schedule, though the sort of controversy that Channel Five has in mind is presumably of a more downmarket variety. And any concept of 'balance' stipulated by Ofcom may rely on the viewer to actively watch a different programme/timeslot to receive the 'opposite' viewpoint - what hope of the average viewer actively doing such a thing in a fragmented multichannel envrionment?
The upshot of all of this is that the concept of 'truly' free speech only works properly if the broadcasters (and programmes) themselves are tightly regulated in terms of quality and quantity, but I fear that a licence to shock will result in an even greater quantity of cheap and sensationalist trash TV being shown during the daytime with any token Ofcom-required "balance" being scheduled for 3am on a Sunday morning, especially with the current (and almost nonexistent) level of regulation being used.
When it becomes possible to show large quantities of such cheap and sensationalist trash, will a commercial broadcaster be able to resist the temptation of relatively high returns for minimal investment?
And what will happen to UK television as a result?
