BBC says UK Pressured Broadcaster (7-27-02 11:59 am et)

[Spazito]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20030727/ap_on_re_eu/britain_weapons_adviser

LONDON - The chairman of the BBC's board of governors on Sunday accused the government of trying to pressure the broadcaster to change the tone of its coverage of the Iraq (news - web sites) war's fallout.

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Gavyn Davies, chairman of the BBC's board of governors, wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that unidentified officials had been quoted in media reports as threatening to cut the broadcaster's funding, remove its director general and rewrite its charter.

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"Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will `bring the BBC to heel,'" he continued.


Davies wrote that during the war in Iraq, the BBC "was under constant attack" from politicians for coverage they perceived as anti-war. He added that the network "upheld its traditional attachment to impartiality and the truth under almost intolerable pressures."

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more..

[searchingforlight]

1. We export everything else. Why not government controlled news!

[TacticalPeek]

2. Maybe they should just put Brit Hume in charge of the BBC...

and then they will have no need for those pesky reporters.

[w4rma]

3. This is another reason why Prime Minister Tony Blair needs to resign (n/t)

[JackSwift]

4. I'm surprised that Labor/Labour? backbenchers don't simply

leave the party over this kind of crap.

[dArKeR]

5. BBC chairman hits out at 'political bullying' by British govt

The relationship between the BBC and the British government comes under more pressure after BBC chairman Gavyn Davies said the corporation's independence was being threatened by political bullying.

He said the BBC would not be cowed and that government-backed attacks on the corporation amounted to an attempt to undermine the organisation's integrity and the work of BBC governors.

'We are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its supporters,' he wrote in Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/world/story/0,4386,201902,00.html

Amazing, a news organization that's not controlled by the Goverment. Too bad we didn't have a BBC in the U.S.A.!

http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/

[bvar22]

6. Too bad about the whimpering, cowed american media.

Go BBC.

[Democat]

7. They want to turn BBC into Fox

Can you blaim the British Government? Look how good a Bush supporting media works for the Republicans in the United States.

[tsipple]

8. BBC: A World Treasure

Maybe the Democratic presidential candidates should push for the same system here, i.e. a "television tax" that directly funds a noncommercial broadcaster with Federal Reserve-like independence.

[T_i_B]

9. These threats to the BBC are serious and sinister

Important article by BBC governor Gavyn Davies.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/07/27/do2701.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2003/07/27/ixop.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=176833

Even amid the sadness surrounding the tragic death of Dr Kelly, some people in and around the Government have seen fit to place the governors of the BBC under public attack in the past few days. The dogged independence of the board in the face of intense pressure has driven some political figures close to distraction, such has been their determination to influence the editorial decisions of Britain's most trusted provider of news and current affairs. Threats, veiled and not so veiled, from "government sources" to take revenge on the BBC by reducing its funding, removing its director-general, and changing its charter have been reported frequently in the media. All this amply demonstrates why Britain still needs the tried and tested system of BBC governance to stand up to storms of this kind.

The governors of the BBC are appointed, in effect, by the Culture Secretary, following a public appointments procedure under the Nolan rules. Tessa Jowell has now appointed or re-appointed 10 of the 12 governors, including the chairman and vice-chairman. Oddly, some of the Government's friends appear to have lost confidence in the judgment and honesty of these appointees. Our integrity is under attack, and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the Government and its supporters. Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will "bring the BBC to heel".

I trust that wiser heads in the Government will prevail. There is only one reason why the BBC has been able to build the trust of its audiences over so many years, and that is because it is emphatically not the voice of the state. Everyone in politics says that they would never wish to make it so, but sometimes their actions belie this. When that happens, the BBC needs its board of governors to stand up and say halt.

All of the individuals who emerge from the governors' highly competitive public appointments process have distinguished records in their fields. Although they emanate from many parts of the political spectrum, and from none, they are all aware that they must deposit their political opinions, along with their coats, outside the Governors' Council Chamber in Broadcasting House. They have many different roles in the BBC, but prime among them is to place an unshakable barrier between the BBC's editorial processes and political bullying. There is no alternative mechanism which could perform this function anything like as well as the Board of Governors.