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BBC's future: a welcome dose of reality
Nicholas Jones
DATELINE: 11/9/09
The promise by Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, to speed up the Corporation's internal inquiry into how far the BBC needs to be reshaped to meet the digital age is a welcome dose of reality. More is the pity that the management left it so late -- until the combined forces of James Murdoch and the Conservative Party were on the war path, breathing down the BBC's neck.
Sir Michael has asked the director general Mark Thompson to conduct 'a thorough review of what the BBC should concentrate on in the future'. Several questions needed answering: is the BBC the right size? Is it operating within the right boundaries? (Lyons' open letter to licence fee payers, 9.9.2009)
Bearing in mind that the licence fee has only been guaranteed until 2015 – and in view of the Conservatives' promise to freeze it at the current level – the BBC's employees, just as much as the public, need to be reassured that the Corporation's hierarchy does have a strategic vision for the future.
The current ten-year agreement for the continuation of the licence fee was agreed by the Blair government just before the 2005 general election and in speeches I made at the time I warned it was only a temporary reprieve.
Top slicing of the licence fee was then merely a suggestion; now it has taken effect.What I deplored at the time was that the management appeared to have no real understanding of Britain's precious inheritance of BBC standards and values and a reputation for news judgement and impartiality which was still widely admired around the world.
After a thirty year career with the BBC the one change which I pinpointed – and which I found so depressing – was a sense that the top management did not understand which of the BBC's services were worth preserving and should be defended at all costs.
The legacy of John Birt's eight years as director general was that he seemed to neuter the BBC as a free spirit; he somehow demolished that great sense of independence and pride in what the BBC did and stood for.
What Birt did instil within the BBC was a drive to expand and develop new services. At one of his 'extending choice' seminars in 1994 I asked him whether there would come a time when the BBC should defend what it did best rather than continue to spread its resources ever more thinly by opening new services.
Birt was adamant: 'Of course we must, we can't stand still, we have to embrace each new service, each new channel…we can't stop'.
One undoubted achievement of Birt's strategy was the development of the BBC's online services, now a target for James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, and sympathetic voices on the Conservative front bench.
Delivering BBC news and programmes free on the internet has been one of the great innovations of recent years and not surprisingly it is the one area where a future Conservative government, egged on by Murdoch & Co, might well seek to clip the BBC's wings.
The battle lines are clear. What I believe need defending above all else are news, current affairs, sport and original entertainment programming. Let us hope that once again the BBC has the wit to parade its innovation and independence. I know that the argument can be won but it will require the kind of co-ordinated fight back – and defence of the licence fee -- that has been so lacking in recent years.
Last modified: Sunday, September 13, 2009
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World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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DATELINE: 1/3/13
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DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
'future Of The BBC...'
Is BBC News online "next in line" for Conservative cuts?
Keeping Broadcasting Public
Keep Broadcasting Public - Victoria Brittain
Keep broadcasting public - Brendan Barber
Keep broadcasting public - Dr. Georgina Born
A view from the Guardian
Keep Broadcasting Public - observer's report
Keep broadcasting public - Tom O'Malley
Keep broadcasting public - James Purnell MP
BBC Conference Warns Against Complacency
Green Paper, white in parts
Ofcom's remedy is not ours...
Conference presentations can now be read here...
Ofcom's mission to destroy...
First cut or narrow escape?
PSB matters says Ofcom spokesman
Collective action & intervention can save public service
