CR spoke with CBC

Sarah J: So something needs to be changed within the system in order that community radio stations can prosper?

Peter: Yes and expand. The current government plans are that national broadcasters who are not only broadcasting on DAB but they're either broadcasting on FM or medium wave will go to broadcast only on digital broadcasting forms. That immediately opens up over half the current FM band for local and community broadcasters. If you look at your FM radio over half that band is taken up by just five radio stations in order that they can cover the whole of the United Kingdom, Radios 1, 2, 3 and 4 from the BBC and Classic FM.

Sarah J: In terms of media ownership, I know some of the concerns are that people like for example Rupert Murdoch have got quite a massive amount of ownership and then if you've got people like that, that are taking massive amounts of ownership it doesn't allow other voices to come through. Talk to me about that.

Peter: Well the great thing we must allow for is competition for new entrants to come into the market. If you over regulate one way or another you can actually stop new entrants from coming in and I think that is key. One of our suggestions would be that parliament gives Ofcom the ability to investigate where it feels that there is an unhealthy concentration of media ownership. That could be at a national level, or it could be at a local level. Also if informed citizens, listeners, viewers, readers felt that in their area there was an over concentration of ownership, they could apply to Ofcom and rather in the way that the new localism bill has given rights to people living in a council area to object if they feel there is too high an increase in the council tax bill, we would suggest that if 5% of the population within the area of those media outlets felt that there was an over concentration, that they weren't getting their news from a variety of sources, they could apply to Ofcom to look into that local situation. I think democratically what this does, it helps safeguard our democratic society and the reason we have a demographic society in this country today is that in the past Christians have stood up for things that they have felt were wrong. Jesus lived in a society where there were people of other faiths and other viewpoints. What we don't want to do is to get into a situation where the State tries to stop freedom of speech and Christians have a great deal to say about freedom of speech and our right to talk about our faith openly and about Jesus openly.

Sarah J: So are you saying that it should be that everybody should have a right to be able to share their views and it's then allowing space for that to happen so that people listening can make their minds up as to which one they want to tune into?

Peter: Absolutely. We need to have that ability to talk freely and openly and it's up to the recipient to decide whether they want to take that point of view or reject that point of view. Some people take the way of following Jesus; other people can go in the opposite direction, that's their decision. For us to talk openly about our faith but at the end of the day it's up to the individual to decide whether they follow our faith, no faith, or some other faith.

Sarah J: How can people find out more about the current debate around Christian broadcasting?

Peter: Well the ideal place to go is to the Christian Broadcasting Council's website, and it's quite an easy one to remember, it's www.cbc.org.uk If they look on the home page then they'll see a tag on the top that says Ofcom and if they click on that they will see a number of the things that CBC have said over recent years to government and the regulator. That is our role, to be a positive influence on the way that legislation goes forward.