Flickr/Jessica C. Some rights reserved
The 2005 Green Paper on BBC Charter renewal promised ‘A strong BBC, independent of government’. Sadly, the charter period which is about to end has been one where the BBC has got weaker, not stronger, and its independence has been significantly compromised in a number of important areas.
The licence fee has been cut in real terms and top sliced to pay for other areas of government expenditure. In an expanding UK media world, the BBC is a much smaller player than a decade ago and will be smaller still by the end of the next charter. The governors, who despite their flaws had a key role as the sovereign body to ensure the BBC’s independence, were replaced in 2006 by the Trust. The new structure was cruelly exposed by the Jimmy Savile scandal and the row over executive pay-offs. Its vulnerability has made the BBC itself less able to resist the erosion of its independence.
