{"id":25775,"date":"2019-10-01T10:18:02","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T09:18:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?p=25775"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:20:41","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:20:41","slug":"bbc-reform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC: the case for reform"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most people in Britain still get most of their news from television, and the BBC remains the nation\u2019s most trusted news source. The broadcaster carries a legacy of relative independence from both government and commercial pressures and is widely considered to be accountable. This perception obscures the reality that, over the past three decades, the BBC\u2019s independence has beensteadily eroded and its programme-making increasingly commercialised.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Severe funding cuts, particularly in recent years, have caused its editorial culture to become more conservative and risk-averse. Meanwhile, accusations of bias abound, in major newspaper columns as well as on Twitter, drawing attention to the BBC\u2019s apparent inability to uphold its own editorial standards of impartiality and accuracy in flagship programmes from Panorama<\/i> to Newsnight<\/i> to Question Time<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Media Reform Coalition (MRC)<\/a> believes that radical reform is necessary if the BBC is to live up to its core values and meet the challenges of 21st-century media and politics. We want an adequately-funded BBC that positively shapes a broader media ecology, nationally and internationally. Here, I outline where the MRC believes reform is most needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Adequate funding is the pathway to real political independence and insulation from the market-based approach that has eroded the BBC\u2019s public service ethos \u2013 both of which are required in order to address concerns over bias. To ensure that the BBC can deliver creative, diverse, high-quality programmes, in addition to accurate and impartial news, current affairs and factual programming, it must receive adequate and secure public funding that is independent of government control. The contours of this funding are a point of ongoing debate that demands close analysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The BBC\u2019s major source of income, the licence fee, was frozen by the government from 2010 to 2017 as part of its austerity programme. It now also has to bear the cost of free TV licences for the over-75s, effectively making it responsible for providing a welfare benefit. This has caused a dramatic reduction in the BBC\u2019s income over the course of a decade. In June, it scrapped the licence-fee concession for most over-75s by introducing means testing. The remaining subsidy outlay will still cost around \u00a3250 million a year \u2013 roughly the same as its budget for all of its online content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MRC recommends that the licence fee system be maintained but radically reformed, with rates set by an independent, non-market regulator acting solely in the public interest. The traditional TV licence should be replaced with a digital licence fee, based on internet access rather than possession of broadcast-receiving equipment alone. The fee should be pegged to households\u2019 council tax bands, to avoid falling disproportionately on lower-income groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Independence matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a public interest service, the BBC should be supported by the state but independent of government. Rather than returning to the top-down, statist model on which the BBC was founded, to fulfil its promise it must become a modern, democratised public platform and network, fully representative of its audiences and completely independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the BBC\u2019s royal charter states that it should be \u2018independent in all matters\u2019, it also stipulates that the government is responsible for appointing the chair and four directors to the BBC board, and for setting the level of the licence fee. The periodic renewal of the charter is a means of maintaining governmental influence. These procedures must be abolished if the BBC is to become truly independent of such influence, which undermines its capacity to deliver impartial news and information. Members of the BBC board should be directly elected by licence fee payers and BBC staff. As well as setting the licence fee, the independent, non-market regulator (mentioned above) should also periodically review the BBC\u2019s constitutional remit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadcasting in the UK was originally regulated according to public service principles. That model has been increasingly marginalised as the BBC has become more and more subject to market-based regulation. Currently, BBC activities have to be balanced with consideration for competition through \u2018public value\u2019 tests. They are also subjected to \u2018market impact assessments\u2019 by Ofcom, an independent communications regulator that has been criticised for privileging consumer interests over those of citizens. Regulation of the BBC must move away from this \u2018market failure\u2019 model \u2013 in which the BBC is expected to provide what the market will not \u2013 to a model in which public and democratic programme-making, and rigorous professional standards, positively shape the broader media ecology. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regional matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Despite some progress in strengthening regional production, not least through Salford\u2019s \u2018Media City\u2019, the BBC remains a highly centralised organisation, built around a London-based managerial and editorial structure. The BBC can only fully reflect the diversity of the UK\u2019s nations, regions and communities if these structures are reformed. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make the BBC more accountable to the broad British public it serves, programme-making and editorial functions must be devolved to the nations and regions. This can be achieved by establishing a system of localised, democratic management and commissioning, with national and regional boards elected by staff and local licence fee payers in the same manner as the BBC board. Concurrently, the role of the board and executive committee should be restricted to corporate-wide oversight, coordination and strategic planning. Strengthened local management and programme-making is crucial to any efforts to address the recognised urgent need for locally-informed and locally-representative reporting. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diversity matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The BBC has acknowledged the need to address its institutional lack of diversity, both in its programming and its workforce. The BBC Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is a welcome step, as is the commitment to Project Diamond, an industry-wide initiative to monitor diversity across the sector. But more could, and should, be done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sincere efforts to address its diversity deficit require complete transparency about the makeup of the BBC\u2019s workforce. This means publishing rigorously collected equality-monitoring data at the programme and production level for all producers of BBC content, whether in-house or external. This should include data on class, as well as age, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion, disability and other characteristics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also means addressing the casualisation of the BBC\u2019s workforce over the past three decades, an issue sorely overlooked in many conversations on diversity. Precarious working conditions dramatically narrow the range of people able to produce programmes, disproportionately impacting those from lower-income families, women, minority groups and those with disabilities. The BBC cannot claim to be representative of its audiences while maintaining exclusionary employment practices. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Media Reform Coalition\u00a0Manifesto 2019\u00a0is available to read here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":46750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[620,685],"tags":[3149],"class_list":["post-25775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporations","category-media","tag-natalie-fenton"],"yoast_head":"\nBBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Pepper\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Siobhan McGuirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Siobhan McGuirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Siobhan McGuirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\"},\"headline\":\"BBC: the case for reform\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\"},\"wordCount\":1086,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Natalie Fenton\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Corporations\",\"Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\",\"name\":\"BBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\"},\"description\":\"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":600,\"caption\":\"CREDIT: ALEXANDER SVENSSON\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Culture\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Media\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"BBC: the case for reform\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/\",\"name\":\"Red Pepper\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c\",\"name\":\"Siobhan McGuirk\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"BBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper","description":"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"BBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper","og_description":"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform","og_url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/","og_site_name":"Red Pepper","article_published_time":"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Siobhan McGuirk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Siobhan McGuirk","Estimated reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/"},"author":{"name":"Siobhan McGuirk","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c"},"headline":"BBC: the case for reform","datePublished":"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/"},"wordCount":1086,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg","keywords":["Natalie Fenton"],"articleSection":["Corporations","Media"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/","name":"BBC: the case for reform - Red Pepper","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg","datePublished":"2019-10-01T09:18:02+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-10T15:20:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c"},"description":"Perceptions of bias at the BBC are on the rise. Natalie Fenton of the Media Reform Coalition puts forward the case for reform","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Broadcasting-house-entrance.jpg","width":1200,"height":600,"caption":"CREDIT: ALEXANDER SVENSSON"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/bbc-reform\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Culture","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Media","item":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/culture-media\/media\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"BBC: the case for reform"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/","name":"Red Pepper","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/#\/schema\/person\/09ca446ad3d47adddd8d78d4fd5ae29c","name":"Siobhan McGuirk"}]}},"type_of_article":[{"ID":35474,"post_title":"Feature","post_content":"","post_excerpt":"","post_author":"50","post_date":"2023-09-14 20:08:05","post_date_gmt":"2023-09-14 19:08:05","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"feature","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2023-09-14 20:08:05","post_modified_gmt":"2023-09-14 19:08:05","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/?post_type=type_of_article&p=35474","menu_order":0,"post_type":"type_of_article","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","comments":false,"id":35474}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25775"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46755,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25775\/revisions\/46755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.redpepper.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}