Skip to main content

The BBC Charter Must be Amended

When the BBC Charter was renewed in 2016 much of the wording and intention was based on an assumed continuation of EU membership.  The wording of the Charter was extended so that it was implied that the BBC would serve an international audience as much as a domestic audience.

In the 2016 Charter the purpose of the BBC is to operate so that:

"all audiences can engage fully with major local, regional, national, United Kingdom and global issues"

"the  BBC  should  provide  high-quality  news  coverage  to  international  audiences"

In other words the BBC is authorised to provide an International News channel that is separate from the World Service.  In 2018 the BBC used this authorisation to address a global audience by merging world and domestic news using "the integration of the Newsgathering’s World and Home teams and also the relocation of World Service staff to sit alongside Public Service colleagues." (See A Simpler BBC).


The BBC is supported by a Licence fee that is paid by the UK audience and much of this audience believes that the BBC is a National broadcaster with the interests of the Nation at heart.  However, the changes in BBC News structure after the 2016 Charter and the merger of global and national news has resulted in the UK being treated by BBC news reporters and editors as if it were just another country.

This demotion of the UK to just another country is most evident when British foreign policy is being reported.  The reports take the standpoint of some external observer working for an imaginary global government who reports that the British want this and the Chinese desire that, the EU wants this and the British are obstructing them etc.  There is little attempt to explain the issue from a British point of view.  These reports are used for both domestic and foreign consumption.

The demotion of the UK also leads to BBC World interview panels with one Internationalist UK representative being sat alongside three foreign representatives so that all four are publicly attacking UK policies.  Any traveller who has watched BBC News from a foreign hotel room knows that even CNN or RT provide a kinder view of the UK abroad than the BBC.

The only solution to this problem is to form a new organisation - World News (WN) - that incorporates BBC Global News and the World Service.  WN should be entirely separate from the BBC and licenced by the Foreign Office.

The problem of the BBC failing to represent the UK originates in the wording of the Charter.  The 2016 Charter replaced the duty in the 2006 Charter of "representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities;" with a duty of providing a "duly accurate and authentic portrayal and representation of the diverse communities of the whole of the United Kingdom."  In 2006 the BBC was charged with representing the UK and in 2016 this had been changed to the BBC being charged to portray the United Kingdom accurately.  This is an important change because it relieves the BBC of the duty to be British and represent Britain in the world. 

We can see from the change in the wording of the Charter that the change was deliberate and sly.  The changed text is also redundant because the BBC has a duty in the 2016 Charter to portray all news accurately and fairly.

The BBC has since 2016 been the Anti-British Broadcasting Corporation.  British Licence Fee payers are financing a Corporation that does not have their interests at heart.  BBC News works on its own behalf, it does not represent the UK to the world, and its interests are now international, not British.  It is unfair to charge a licence fee in these circumstances and we must either change the BBC by restoring its duty to the United Kingdom or abolish the licence fee.

21/5/2020


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Falklands have always been Argentine - Las Malvinas son Argentinas

"The Falklands have always been Argentine" is taught to every Argentine child as a matter of faith.  What was Argentina during the time when it "always" possessed Las Malvinas?  In this article I will trace the history of Argentina in the context of its physical and political relationship with "Las Malvinas", the Falkland Islands.  The Argentine claim to the Falkland Islands dates from a brief episode in 1831-32 so it is like Canada claiming the USA despite two centuries of separate development. This might sound like ancient history but Argentina has gone to war for this ancient claim so the following article is well worth reading. For a summary of the legal case see: Las Malvinas: The Legal Case Argentina traces its origins to Spanish South America when it was part of the Viceroyalty of the Rio del Plata.  The Falklands lay off the Viceroyalty of Peru, controlled by the Captain General of Chile.  In 1810 the Falklands were far from the geographical b...

Do Muslim women want to wear the Burka (Burqua)?

Do all islamic women want to wear burka?  Can a woman's freedom to wear what she wants oppress other women?  Are western feminists aiding a cult that is dedicated to the destruction of feminism?  I hope to answer these questions in this article.  I would much appreciate any comments you might have if you disagree with the article, especially if you have a feminist viewpoint. Here is a description of the problems of wearing burka by a woman of Asian origin: "Of course, many veiled Muslim women argue that, far from being forced to wear burkas by ruthless husbands, they do so out of choice. And I have to take them at their word. But it is also very apparent that many women are forced behind the veil. A number of them have turned up at my door seeking refuge from their fathers, mothers, brothers and in-laws - men brain-washed by religious leaders who use physical and mental abuse to compel the girls to cover up. It started with the headscarf, then went to th...

The Roots of New Labour

This article was written in 2009 but is still useful to understand the motivation behind New Labour - from the global financial crisis through the over-regulated, surveillance society to the break up of the UK into nationalities. The past lives of Labour Ministers have long been sanitised and many biographies that include their shady communist and Marxist pasts are inaccessible or removed from the net. The truth about these guys is similar to discovering that leading Tories were members of the Nazi Party. If you are a British voter and do not think that this is important then I despair for British politics.  Had these people taken jobs in industry their past might be forgotten and forgiven but they continued in left wing politics and even today boast of being "Stalinist" or International Socialist (or in Blair's case, Trotskyist ). Peter Mandelson (first Secretary of State and Labour Supremo): "Mr Mandelson was born into a Labour family - his grandfather wa...