BBC and Its Importance Today

The case for statutory regulation of press standards is built on the premise that properly devised measures designed to promote press freedom and high standards in the press do not constitute pre-publication censorship. Allowing the public to have redressed after publication allows the publisher to decide in advance whether the material should be published, therefore it does not constitute censorship. Nonetheless the proprietors and some editors will doubtless produce this red herring yet again during this process, and the Committee would be well advised to press home a strong set of criticisms on this issue.

The BBC is one part of public service Broadcasting in the UK. For the BBC to thrive it must operate on a level playing field. By creating one sector that is increasingly under-regul ated (satellite, digital, commercial radio), one that is weakly regulated (ITV) and another with tighter public service requirements (BBC, S4C and C4), and the government has created huge problems. The logic of the current situation is to ultimately diminish the relative weight of public service obligations across the whole sector. This is not a technically driven situation. There is no technical reason why the direction of recent policy has been to foster more commercial services at the expense of public service provision. Given that, the solution resides in looking at the overall policy framework within which UK Broadcasting operates. This would mean rolling out public service obligations across the sector, in exchange, perhaps for tax or regulatory concessions. Unless this is done, and unless the BBC is set on a level playing field with its competitors, it will, like public service Broadcasting in the USA, wither on the vine. Not immediate death, but death by a thousand minor policy instruments. The Campaign for Press Broadcasting Freedom therefore considers that the current framework governing Broadcasting in the UK should be changed to place strong public service obligations on all major providers, so as to ensure the fut ure of high quality, independent Broadcasting and related services

There should be positive regulation of the media and communications. The UK's Communications Bill appears to serve sectional commercial interests. The Communications Bill states that OFCOM is meant primarily to promote economic competition in the media. It is designed to allow as much self- regulation by the media as possible. Why? Because positive regulation costs the industry money! OFCOM is to be run by a tiny Board, which has been appointed rather than nominated by public bodies. It therefore represents no one except the interests of those people who have been appointed to it. . There is less representation for Wales and Scotland on OFCOM than there was on the former regulators.

The Hutton Inquiry and its aftermat h revealed fundamental weaknesses in the Corporation's governance. Most vitally it showed the extent to which the system of appointing governors does not provide the best way of creating a robust body, willing and able to resist direct government pressures. It also highlighted the extent to which the BBC Board of Governors remains too dependent on BBC managers for its understanding of issues relating to the governance of the Corporation.

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Author:: Mary Anne Winslow
Keywords:: BBC, Broadcasting
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