Birmingham and Coventry National Union of Journalists

EDM 2669: Local radio licences
That this House notes that the BBC Trust has encouraged the BBC management to re-think its restructuring plans for local radio; congratulates Lord Patten for his courage in opposing the changes; urges Ofcom to review local commercial radio given that the Guardian Media Group has recently made redundant many high quality news staff; further notes many of the so-called local radio stations are now in fact local transmitters for national radio shows, something that the now defunct Radio Authority would not have allowed; and calls on the Government to ensure that public sector and commercial private sector broadcasters keep the making of their programmes local as promised in their licence applications.
Primary sponsor: David Morris, date tabled: 31/01/2012

EDM 2654: Anonymity on the internet
That this House is concerned at reports in the Wall Street Journal that Google may now be combining nearly all the information it has on its users, which could make it harder for them to remain anonymous; notes that Google's new policy is planned to take effect on 1 March 2012, but that this has not been widely advertised or highlighted to Google's users and customers, who now number more than 800 million people; and therefore concludes that Google should make efforts to consult on these changes and that the firm should be extremely careful in the months ahead not to risk the same kind of mass privacy violations that took place under its Street View programme, which the Australian Minister for Communications called the largest privacy breach in history across western democracies.
Primary sponsor: Robert Halfon, date tabled: 26/01/2012