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This isn’t public policy: the prelude to the BBC White Paper

Debate about the BBC’s Charter Review has been dominated by leaks and rumours that ultimately play into the hands of commercial lobbyists. Where are the voices of licence-fee payers?

By Des Freedman
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Strictly Come Dancing is at the centre of new rumours about a 'clamp down' on competitive scheduling at the BBC. Image: Katja Ogrin/Press Association/EMPICS entertainment. All rights reserved

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. Even the merest hint that it would be appropriate for government to get involved in detailed scheduling decisions in order to prevent the BBC running popular programmes against its rivals would seem to have been taken straight out of the commercial lobbyists’ handbook. 

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Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0