Want a glimpse of the culture minister’s real agenda for the BBC? Just turn to pages 112-115 of the government’s White Paper and the commissioned questions asked by the polling agency. They are very revealing. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: BBC (Page 4 of 6)
The good folk at the Cambridge University Conservative Association must be a little disappointed. Having listened to culture secretary John Whittingdale tell them only last month that the disappearance of the BBC was “a tempting prospect”, they will now have noticed that his white paper on the future of the BBC is planning to do no such thing. Continue reading
Is John Whittingdale the most hostile politician ever to have responsibility for the BBC? When a senior Telegraph journalist called his appointment as culture secretary “an effective declaration of war” on the BBC, some of us thought it excessive. Continue reading
It is hard to know whether the recent rumours about the contents of the forthcoming White Paper on the future of the BBC should be seen as light entertainment or crime drama. Three leading Sunday newspapers revealed that the government plans to interfere in the scheduling of popular programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing, Silent Witness and the News at Ten. Continue reading
Culture secretary John Whittingdale gave an update on the progress on the renewal of the BBC Charter in a speech at the Oxford Media Convention last week. All the parties, as well as recent select committee reports, and even the chair of the BBC Trust, agree that reform of BBC regulation is necessary. Continue reading
The key players in the debate about the BBC Charter have now shown their hands. The public’s voice is being filtered through a range of public consultations by Parliament, by Government and by the BBC Trust. Continue reading
For any fans of the BBC – and that would include the 59% of Britons who say it is the source they are most likely to turn to for accurate news coverage or, for that matter, the 34% of Americans who told Pew last year they turn first to the BBC for their news – then the government’s green paper on the future of the UK’s public broadcaster will come as worrying news. Continue reading
The 2011 Parliament Act has been bad news for the BBC. It means the two periods of maximum potential political intervention in the BBC. Charter renewal every ten years and licence fee negotiations every five now coincide almost exactly with the dates of UK general elections and will do so for the foreseeable future. Continue reading
My entry for the prize for the most unsurprising allegation of 2015 was the uncannily similar complaints that emanated from a number of Conservative MPs who claimed that the BBC’s reporting of the general election had been overtly pro-Labour (fat lot of good it did them, one might opine). Continue reading
Like most people with even a passing interest in the part played by News Corporation in British politics, I remember exactly what I was doing when scandal broke in 2011 and the sense of a seemingly indestructible media behemoth crumbling into chaos and ruin before our eyes. Now, Rebekah Brooks is to return as chief executive of News UK, publisher of the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times. In 2014 she was cleared of all charges relating to the phone-hacking scandal. Continue reading
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