Clause 3 - Advertising: newspapers, periodicals etc
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill [Lords]
2:30 pm
Mr David Wilshire (Spelthorne, Conservative)
I welcome you to what is turning out to be an absolutely riveting, thought-provoking and—I hasten to add—one-sided debate, Mr. Pike. We have tried our level best to engage Government Members in discussion but we have not been too successful. Perhaps they will catch your eye, which will help to spread the debate.
As I was saying when I was unceremoniously stopped this morning, two issues must be addressed. First, there is the question of whether a named proprietor would be a person, a limited company or the directors of a company.
I was stopped when I was moving on to my second worry, which is the definition of an editor. One or two people have been keen to say that asking for definitions is nit-picking, but in this case it is not. As the media industry has developed, the concept of editor has changed, as has the job title of people whom we may historically consider to be the editor. In this day and age, if we hauled the editor of the Daily Express to the Bar of the House, we would have to decide which editor to haul. It would be helpful if the Minister would give us a definition of the person who will be caught under the clause. Given that the Government will have their way, I am more than prepared to join in a sensible discussion about getting the provision right—that is the spirit in which I raise my query.
We all know from our constituency experience that people are called group editors or editors-in-chief, and that other job titles are developing. In order to avoid doubt, the Minister may need to reflect on that and get back to us on Report to broaden the use of the word ''editor''. It is tempting to say that an editor is self-evidently the editor, and that that is as broad as the issue gets. However, I hope that after the Minister reflects on job titles such as group editor and editor-in-chief, she will decide that there is a lack of clarity in the Bill that could be put right.
There is a potential booby trap in going down that route. If one starts to define types of editor, one is in great danger of catching sub-editors. If the word ''editor'' is intended to cover anyone who has the word ''editor'' in their job description, the wonderful venerable subbies, who are anything but the editors of a paper, could be caught. I suspect that the Minister
would not want such people to be held responsible for the publication of a magazine or a newspaper.