SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – APRIL 12: Benedict Cumberbatch attends the press conference for ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ Seoul premiere on April 12, 2018 in Seoul, South Korea. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)
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Actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Alan Cumming and Benedict Wong have penned an op-ed in The Guardian calling for the U.K. to block the Paramount–Warner Bros. merger, arguing “would harm our workers, our culture and the public.”
In the op-ed, the trio encouraged Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for digital, culture, media and sport, to intervene in order to stop the proposed merger.
In a recent statement to Parliament, Nandy said she was “minded to intervene” on the issue under the Enterprise Act 2002. Under that act, she can intervene if she has reasonable grounds to suspect that arrangements are in contemplation which, if carried into effect, will result in the creation of a relevant merger situation and she believes that one or more public interest considerations under the Act may be relevant.
She also stated that while the merger is global in nature, she is solely concerned with the impact it would have in the U.K.:
The need for, to the extent that it is reasonable and practicable, a sufficient plurality of views in news media in each market for news media in the United Kingdom or a part of the United Kingdom.
The need, in relation to every different audience in the United Kingdom, or in a particular area or locality of the United Kingdom, for there to be a sufficient plurality of persons with control of the media enterprises, or the enterprises providing on-demand programme services or both, serving that audience.
In the Guardian op-ed, the three actors ask her to make that determination and act to block the merger. Or at the very least, divest itself of some assets in the U.K. in order to protect the variety of independent voices in the reason:
Consider the breadth of what this single company would hold. Channel 5, one of our five public service broadcasters, which serves the evening news to people without the cost of a subscription. CNN International, which Ofcom research in 2018 found UK viewers rated above every other TV news source for quality, accuracy, trustworthiness and impartiality. The CNN and CBS news archives – among the world’s most important broadcast news collections, with more than 4.25m videos, images and media spanning nearly half a century of history.
The op-ed makes the argument that while the three actors aren’t eager to wade into such a political battle, they feel as if they have no choice:
Actors are often told to stay out of legal arguments. We understand the instinct. But we have spent our lives on enough UK sets, worked alongside enough UK crews and watched enough brilliant work from the UK struggle to find a buyer to know that this is not someone else’s argument. It is ours.