Unveiling the government's flagship Communications Bill in the Commons, Ms Jowell promised to improve consumer choice and free broadcasters from regulatory interference.

I do not accept that relaxation of the ownership rules will lead to a dumping of poor quality foreign programmes on the public

Tessa Jowell

She also defended the decision to leave the BBC to police its own accuracy and impartiality - stressing that it would be forced to prove it was up to the job.

The Conservatives welcomed the bill, but said the omission of the BBC from new regulations meant it was "fatally flawed".

Murdoch

The Communications Bill aims to replace existing regulators such as Oftel and the ITC with a new super-regulator, Ofcom, covering the entire communications industry.

Ms Jowell has promised Ofcom will have a "light touch" and she said where the industry can prove a case it will be allowed to regulate itself.

The bill will also relax media ownership laws to allow non-EU companies to buy up UK television channels, potentially paving the way for a takeover of Channel 5 by Rupert Murdoch.

Critics say the new regime will lead to the UK being swamped by cheap imported television programmes.

Foreign programmes

But Ms Jowell said the safeguards contained in the bill mean the UK viewers will get the "best of both worlds".

She said broadcasters needed investment and it didn't matter if it was "a euro, a dollar or a yen as long as the content of our media remains high quality".

"The policing of that content by Ofcom will ensure that we end up with the best of both worlds - their money but our standards.

"I do not accept that relaxation of the ownership rules will lead to a dumping of poor quality foreign programmes on the public.

"Ofcom won't let it and the public wouldn't wear it."

Puttnam

Ms Jowell praised the work done on the Bill by a committee led by Labour peer Lord Puttnam - which led the government to accept more than 120 changes to the Bill.

These included:

• A new newspaper merger regime
• More consolidation of local radio stations
• Lifting a ban on religious organisations applying for national digital radio licenses

Ms Jowell also warned MPs over a potential battle with the European Court of Human Rights over the issue of a ban on political advertising.

'Powerful interests'

This meant that, for the first time, the government has been unable to guarantee to MPs that legislation meets the Human Rights Act, following a decision against Switzerland over a similar ban.

Ms Jowell said she hoped there would be cross party support for the retention of the ban, which prevented the political debate being hijacked by "powerful interests".

But she said if the ban was successfully challenged in the courts the government would be forced to reconsider its decision.

Tory response

Conservative shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale welcomed the Bill.

But he said the omission of the BBC from the remit of Ofcom meant it was "fatally flawed".

He also warned against the possible introduction of statutory regulation of newspapers "through the backdoor".

He also stressed the need for greater competition in the telecoms market, which was still dominated by BT, and the importance of increasing broadband access.

But he congratulated ministers for standing firm against "protectionists" who wanted to restrict media ownership rules.

'Premature'

He also welcomed the lifting of restrictions preventing the creation of a single ITV company.

But called for a lifting of ownership restrictions on ITN, which, he said "needs investment to be able to compete with Sky News and BBC".

Labour's Austin Mitchell said the BBC should be subject to the proposed regulation "as little as possible" because "it is a unique institution".

But he also accused the corporation of wasting money on digital programmes which few people watched.

The BBC "suffers from premature digital ejaculation", he told MPs.