Ofcom boss recruitment to be rerun as Paul Dacre runs afoul of big tech
The process to select the next chair of the UK’s media regulator will be rerun amid big tech complaints about the potential appointment of former Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre.
Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has written to the Public Appointments Commissioner to restart the process to decide who should take OfCom’s top chair, according to multiple reports.
Former Mail editor Paul Dacre had been tipped for the role after decades in journalism.
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But his previous campaigns against the BBC and the tech giants were said to have given those unlikely bedfellows common cause in fearing a Dacre-led regulator.
Facebook and Google in particular are said to have ramped up their lobbying of DCMS in recent weeks, with Nick Clegg – the former Deputy Prime Minister and now a senior executive at Facebook – reportedly involved in the efforts.
A Facebook spokesman told City A.M. that “neither Nick Clegg nor anybody else at Facebook has spoken to the Culture Secretary about the Ofcom Chair appointment.
“In a recent meeting with DCMS officials, held at their request, Nick simply asked questions about the timing and process and stressed that Facebook hopes to continue its positive working relationship with Ofcom. Any suggestion of a lobbying campaign for or against any individual is simply false.”
OfCom’s new chair will be tasked with firming up regulation on tech firms around data privacy.
He or she will also be expected to speed up reform of the BBC, once again in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
Dacre cut a controversial figure at the Mail but is viewed with respect by the vast majority of his former colleagues and journalists across the industry.
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