The BBC must change its ways says Jowell (Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary of Great Britain)

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | November 3, 2004 | Tom Leonard

[Stoat]

The BBC must change its ways says Jowell

By Tom Leonard, Media Editor
(Filed: 03/11/2004)

The BBC governors' role is "unsustainable" and will not survive the review of the corporation's charter, Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said yesterday.

Miss Jowell made clear that the current assessment of the BBC being conducted for the government by Lord Burns would be one of the most significant in the corporation's history, involving a radical overhaul of the way the organisation is governed.

Questioned by members of the Commons media select committee, which is investigating the BBC's future, Miss Jowell said that the "status quo is not an option".

"Just as the BBC has made very welcome moves towards the separation, we wouldn't regard the status quo as an option that would be sustainable for the next period of charter renewal," she said.

Miss Jowell said her "major objective" in the charter review was to make the BBC more accountable to the public. The corporation needed to have a "continuing conversation" with licence fee-payers.

She said the BBC's "diversity of function" should "come under very close scrutiny", adding: "I don't think, by and large, that the BBC should be investing licence-payers' money in those areas already served by commercial forces."

Following criticism by Lord Hutton over the governors' failure to question BBC management over the Iraqi dossier row with Downing Street, the new chairman, Michael Grade, has appointed new governors with more specialist broadcasting knowledge.

Although the government was not considering ending the system whereby the corporation is governed by a royal charter, that did not mean it could not be subject to an external regulator, Miss Jowell said.

The minister defended the BBC's digital channels, BBC3 and BBC4, from criticism that they are poor value for money as they attract so few viewers.

She said the corporation should not be "scrambling" simply after high ratings as this inevitably pushed it towards "the middle ground" and away from the distinctiveness to which it should be aspiring.

She noted that BBC4, an arts and culture channel, was "extremely popular" among its "devotees". "I believe that one of the BBC's many roles is to service the interests of British people where viewing tastes are very different."

Miss Jowell described the licence fee as the "default option" for funding the BBC and said there had to be a "better alternative" for it to be replaced.

 

21 July 2004: BBC is getting worse, say viewers

 

[Stoat]

Sounds promising...hopefully this will signify some positive changes for our friends across the pond. :-)

[glennherman]

Hey, brit idiots! Why not stop the jew baiting for starters at the BBC? Just a thought!

[Cicero]

Tessa Jowell is much better looking than her name:

But I don't expect anything to come of this review. Bureaucracies are incapable of fixing themselves.

[Savage Beast]

Remember when the BBC was respected throughout the world as a source of truth and information? Today it's a joke.

[GeronL]

How about dividing the BBC into 4 different separate networks allowing the license-holders to decide which one should get their money?

[BurbankKarl]

Sell one network to Rupert Murdoch....

did they ever figure out what brought down that tower?

[GeronL]

m... I never gave that another thought.... hhhmmmm

[Calvin Locke]

did they ever figure out what brought down that tower?

Probably sourced the steel from the same place the White Star Line got it for the Titanic.

[jb6]

Hay, TTS(Allah) where are you on this?

The corporation needed to have a "continuing conversation" with licence fee-payers

A government owned main media station. This is government censorship, but you're quiet. Oh that's right, this is England not Russia and we all know you have but one agenda on FR. Oh and that's right, that's license fee-payers: aka citizens who must buy their right to watch 'public' TV.