Lord Puttnam has spoken out against the privatisation of UK’s Channel 4.
In a wide-ranging ‘Creative Keynote’ at IBC, he also said the view favouring its sale expressed earlier at the conference by Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP founder and CEO, was a political rather than economic one.
Lord Puttnam expressed regret at one oversight of the 2003 Communications Bill, which he helped shape as chairman of a joint committee. It failed to make political advertising conform to the same standards as consumer advertising, thereby making possible the misinformation fed to the British public ahead of the Brexit referendum.
On the other hand, the Bill introduced the word ‘citizen’ into UK legislation for the first time. Furthermore, the rights of citizens were placed above those to consumers for the first time, reversing the situation that had existed before.
Lord Puttnam said he was returning to filmmaking after two decades for a one-off title named Arctic 30. An “experiential” production likely to be released in 2018, it tells the true story about climate change protesters and in many ways reflects his wish for young people to become more active in such issues rather than just show their concern through Facebook.
Yet significantly, he also recognised the power of social media, pointing out that there are 150 million people signed up to concerned bodies.
