Due Impartiality

Abstract

In the closing stages of the Commons debate on the first Television Bill (see Volume 1) opposition speakers were unhappy about the vague generality of the programme control duties of the proposed Authority. They wanted these to be more precisely defined, and subjected to regular Parliamentary check on their proper fulfilment. The Government reply, that what was offensive to public feeling could not be other than what the Authority judged to be offensive and that ‘due impartiality’ would be what the Authority deemed duly impartial, left them uneasy. As with Humpty Dumpty, words were to mean what it chose them to mean. However, with the growth and spread of the itv service it became increasingly clear that a workable interpretation of statutory duties could only be reached in ad hoc day-to-day dealings between ita and companies in relation to particular television programmes and the problems that these raised in practice.