Letter: Media madness

Sir: In your report (20 April) of Michael Green's Fleming Memorial Lecture to the Royal Television Society, the headline referred to his call for 'more liberal ownership rules'.

Many, like me, will recoil at the use of the word 'liberal' in that context. How can it possibly be a liberalising development to allow Mr Green to join Rupert Murdoch in crushing real diversity and character out of the media choices available to the public?

He is frank enough to say in his lecture that he has 'no quarrel with the influence News International has achieved not only in this country but in other regions of the world'.

The recent deregulation allowing takeover of regional television companies is bad enough, and will in time effect a further shift towards the bland, commercialised and indistinguishable output which is already too much a feature of the status quo. Ultimately, there is a clash between cultural and commercial values, and it would be nice to think that the Government for once made the right choice.

Yours truly,

ANDREW PHILLIPS

Sudbury, Suffolk

20 April