STATE CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 66, 19 March 1931, Page 22

STATE CONTROL

CAN IT BE DONE IN TIME?

Several months ago the PostmasterGeneral (the Hon. J. B. Donald), astonished Parliament, the public, and the Broadcasting Company by announcing that the company's lieeneo would bo terminated in January, 1932, and that the P. and T. Department would take over the control of broadcasting from that time, and carry oat a largo programme of extension of the'service. The proposal was extremely vague, and while the Ministor was apparently satisfied that the Department *yaa well qualified to attend to the engineering sido of the enormous task, he readily admitted that the method of dealing with programmes was .an unsolved problem. The company's licence has now less than a year, to run, and apparently nothing whatever has been done- to prepare for the change. One may fairly, safely make certain assumptions :• — (1) The P. and T. Department is not especially anxious to add to its duties the work of controlling the technical operation of the broadcasting service. (2) The P. and T. Department is neither willing nor qualified to take over the programme direction of the service. (3) No Government Department or official lias yet undertaken an adequate investigation for the formulation of a Government-controlled broadcasting service. (4) In view of the existing economic situation and the multiplicity of more urgent matters requiring attention, there is no.prospect of a departmental investigation of adequate scope being made in time for a change to Government control nest January.

Mr. Donald's original announcement was couched in terms that would lead to the belief that a mere Order-in-Council would enable the detailed conJ trol of broadcasting to be transferred immediately to his Department^ but it is very questionable whether it can, or if it can, whether it should. Radio broadcasting is one of the most potent services in civilised communities. It may be used, in practice, as purely an entertainment, having no vital effect upon the public mind; but at a moment's notice it can bo converted into a propagandist agent the influence of which is comparable only to that of the Press. To regard its possibilities with contempt is absurd. The question whether broadcasting should be a purely State-controlled activity is one of sufficient importance to be submitted to Parliament and determined by formal legislation. Whether an Act is necessary or not, it appears as if the position is being allowed to drift so that there is a real risk'of an eleventh hour rush, in which case another assumption is justified— that a hasty/arrangement will bo made and repentance .will follow. Something must.be done now.

Tbo only reason for changing the present sj-sfcem is to provide a better broadcasting, service. As.is true of most pubdie services, there are two_ broad methods of arriving at nn improvement. One is by gradual development, which may be irritating, slow, and costly; tho other is by careful investigation of all the information available, here and elsewhere, and the adoption of: a system which may or -nay not re-, quire a complete reconstruction. In regard to broadcasting in this country the second method appears to be tho proper one. And the time between now and next January, allowing for tho delays inevitable in the present circumstances, is not sufficient to enable nn investigation to be made and to produce its fruits. Any full investigation, however made,1 can only confirm the general impression that. direct Government control of broadcasting must imply tho importation, either .as Government officials or as co-opted officers, of programme experts, and their organisation cannot be carried out in a hurry. If; appears as if tho rational thing to do now, since something has to be done, is to take an immediate decision to defer the transfer to Government control for, say, a year—if the Broadcasting Company is prepared to carry on—and institute at the earliest opportunity a full investigation of tho whole broadcasting position, preferably by means of a Commission. It may not be quite to the taste of the PostmasterGeneral to go back on his ultimatum; but what sort of trouble is he gomg to make if, after sharing in the troubles that now beset the Government, heattempts, without adequate preparation, to carry out? . , , If it is objected that a Commission will cost a lot of money, the reply is thafc a broadcasting service is a pretty costly affair, anyway, and tho cost of an inquiry is a fleabite compared with the cost of setting up a big radio system that needs later to bo scrapped.