Ever since Rupert Murdoch decided to enter the television game in the early 1980s, his newspapers have waged continuous war on public service broadcasters, and on the BBC in particular. These he sees purely as rivals in the broadcasting marketplace, and when Murdoch spots rivals his instinct is to exterminate them – witness, for example, the predatory pricing by Murdoch of his newspaper titles by means of which he attempted to throttle the Independent in the early 1990s. Continue reading
The International Forum for Responsible Media Blog
Tag: BBC (Page 5 of 6)
This is the final part of a two part post. Part 1 was published on 28 July 2015.
Anxiety has been expressed in pro-BBC quarters about the members of the Charter Review advisory group [pdf] set up by the DCMS. Thus Broadcast stated that ‘the consensus is that the group are talented and experienced but lack obvious empathy or sympathy for the BBC. There are also concerns that they may pursue their own commercial agendas at the expense of the Corporation.’ Continue reading
When the DCMS Green Paper on BBC Charter Renewal [pdf] was published on 16 July 2015, the reaction on the part of the corporation’s enemies in the press was relatively muted, particularly when compared to the way in which they had reacted, a few days earlier, to the leaked news of the upcoming consultation. Continue reading
Who would have expected that one of the central debates about the future of the BBC would not be about its pro-business news coverage, its financial mismanagement or its alleged cover-up of the Jimmy Savile scandal, but about whether it should show Strictly Come Dancing on a Saturday night? Continue reading
UK media coverage of EU issues is frequently superficial and plagued by basic errors. The BBC, and others, must work to change this. Part 1 of this post was published on 17 April 2015 and Part 2 on 19 April 2015. Continue reading
Infuriated by the BBC’s lack of coverage of its work, The European Scrutiny committee is at the centre of a discussion about the ‘limits’ of the corporation’s independence. Part 1 of this post was published on 17 April 2015. Continue reading
The European Scrutiny Committee has locked horns with the BBC, repeatedly accusing it of a pro-EU bias. Is the corporation’s editorial independence under threat? Continue reading
With the BBC’s Charter due to expire at the end of next year, and the coalition reluctant to start the consultation ball rolling so close to May’s general election, it was entirely appropriate that the Culture, Media and Sport select committee should produce its own report to influence the process. Continue reading
In the case of Tesla Motors v BBC ([2013] EWCA Civ 152) the Court of Appeal refused an appeal against the strike out of a libel claim against the BBC in relation to a review of an electric sports car by the “Top Gear” programme. The judge below had been correct in concluding that there was no sufficient prospect of the manufacturer recovering a substantial sum of damages such as to justify continuing the case to trial. Continue reading
As we pointed out last week, Lord McAlpine’s reputation was severely damaged by the event surrounding the ill-conceived Newsnight broadcast of 2 November 2012. That damage was caused in part by the publication on Twitter of material which linked him to the unidentified individual mentioned in the broadcast. Lord McAlpine was plainly entitled to have his reputation restored. This was, in practice, substantially achieved by the apology given by the BBC on 10 November 2012. Continue reading
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