Why the UK is Urging the BBC to Prioritize Impartiality
The UK culture secretary has expressed his desire to ensure that the BBC, the country’s public service broadcaster, remains impartial in its operations. While giving evidence to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday, Lucy Frazer stressed the need to prioritize an impartial stance, saying that the broadcaster was, at times, biased in its reporting.
The context for Frazer’s statements was the recent resignation of Richard Sharp, who held the position of BBC chairman. Sharp, a Tory Party donor, was forced to step down in April over concerns about his potential conflicts of interest. Frazer urged the broadcaster to broaden the field for the selection of Sharp’s successor to ensure that the best-suited candidate was chosen, and not one with clear political allegiances.
An Existential Threat to Public Service Broadcasters?
While Frazer’s statement was made in the context of the BBC’s independence, the wider threat of technology firms encroaching on traditional, public service broadcasters is becoming increasingly apparent. One senior media executive, Magnus Brooke, has warned of an “existential threat” to public service broadcasters such as ITV due to digital media services from technology firms.
The UK government’s draft media law has raised concerns among public service broadcasters that it does not set clear enough rules to enforce a fair trading relationship between traditional broadcasters and online TV platforms. Some providers are seeking more control over their customer data and advertiser relationships, potentially leading to commercial terms set globally rather than the UK. Such concerns plagued the provision in the law to ensure that viewers can easily access public service broadcasting on a smart TV and streaming platforms.
Could Ofcom be the Solution?
Brooke suggests that the legislation must give the watchdog, Ofcom, “enough strength and discretion…to take us to a place of victory.” Without such discretion, it will be difficult for Ofcom to intervene if mutually beneficial commercial agreements are not made between public service broadcasters and streamers. The bill proposes to reinforce British public service broadcasting, among other measures. However, there is a fear among public service broadcasters that legislation alone will not be enough to survive in a constantly evolving digital landscape.
Summary
Lucy Frazer, the UK culture secretary, has expressed concerns about the impartiality of public service broadcaster, the BBC. She urged the broadcaster to broaden the field in selecting a new chairman in the aftermath of Richard Sharp’s resignation. Public service broadcasters across the UK also face an existential threat due to concerns that technology firms are seeking more control over their customer data, advertiser relationships, and commercial terms. Public service broadcasters are concerned that the draft media law does not set clear enough rules to enforce a fair trading relationship between themselves and online TV platforms such as Amazon Prime. Section 8 of the bill, in part, covers measures to help traditional broadcasters compete with dominant streaming services such as Netflix.
Additional Piece
While UK public service broadcasters are facing grave challenges from the rise of digital media services and big tech moving into their space, there is another threat. This threat comes from the dominance of commercialization over providing impartial broadcasting. In raising concerns about the impartiality of the BBC, Lucy Frazer is reminding everyone of the need for balance in news reporting. An essential aspect of public broadcasting is to provide news that is unbiased, allowing citizens to be informed and make decisions based on facts. However, when a media house has biases that favor a particular political view or interest, the risk is that their reporting may not be factual.
BBC is not Alone
BBC is not alone in facing such challenges. Public broadcasting across the world, including PBS and NPR in the United States, have had to balance between commercialization and impartiality. The question is whether public broadcasting is going further down the road of commercialization, leading to an erosion of impartiality that is so vital for democracy?
What can be done about it?
The root of the problem is the lack of funding for public broadcasters. Public broadcasters rely on government funding, but given the constant cuts in government funding, public broadcasters have had to find alternate ways to make up for lost revenue. This has led to an overreliance on corporate sponsors and advertisers, leading, in turn, to a loss of impartiality.
A solution could be to increase public funding for public service broadcasters so that they do not have to rely on corporate sponsors or advertisers to stay afloat. Such public funding should come with safeguards to ensure that broadcasters remain impartial and do not push their agendas. Another solution could be to have more regulation on broadcasting to ensure impartiality. However, this may prove challenging to balance impartiality and freedom of speech.
Conclusion
There are certainly challenges facing public broadcasters in the UK and across the world today. However, the need for impartiality in news reporting is essential for a functioning democracy. The government must ensure that public broadcasters have enough funding to stay afloat, so they do not have to rely on corporate sponsors who may have agendas. Finally, in answering the question of whether public broadcasters will continue to provide impartial reporting, the answer must be yes if democracy is to be safeguarded.
Summary
Lucy Frazer, the UK culture secretary, urges the BBC to prioritize impartiality in their news reporting, highlighting the importance of impartial broadcasting. Public broadcasters worldwide face an existential threat due to the rise of digital media services and big tech. More significant funding for public service broadcasters would limit their reliance on corporate sponsors and advertisers, resulting in better impartiality. Broadcasting regulation could also play a role, though a balance must be struck between impartiality and freedom of speech. The government must ensure that funds are accessible to the public broadcaster to maintain democracy.
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The UK culture secretary vowed not to be swayed by “political beliefs” in selecting the next BBC president, but urged the broadcaster to pay attention to impartiality rules as “it was sometimes biased”.
Lucy Frazer told the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Tuesday she wanted to ensure ‘the widest possible field’ of applicants for the job in order to ‘recommend the best possible person’ following Richard’s resignation Sharp.
Ministers have been urged to ensure the nomination process is transparent and to stop picking candidates with clear political allegiances, after Sharp, a Tory Party donor, was forced to resign in April over perceived potential conflicts of interest.
“I will not take their political beliefs into consideration one way or the other,” Frazer said, adding that no decision has been made on the license fee, which funds the BBC, before a review on the matter.
However, he urged the company “to understand its duties also in relation to impartiality,” noting that a mid-term review of its operations would cover the matter.
“I think the BBC is biased at times,” Frazer said, declining to give examples. “There are often complaints about the BBC.”
His remarks to the Commons Committee followed a warning from a senior media executive that public service broadcasters, such as ITV, were facing a “existential threat” by commercial requests made by US technology groups to bring their programs to the Internet.
PSBs fear the government’s draft media law doesn’t set clear enough rules to enforce a fair trading relationship between them and online TV platforms owned by big US tech companies.
The legislation, now before parliament, is in part designed to help them better compete with major streaming services like Amazon Prime. One of its goals, for example, is to ensure viewers can easily discover PSB services such as BBC iPlayer and ITVX on smart TVs and make them ‘prominent’ on streaming platform systems.
But providing evidence, Magnus Brooke, director of strategy, policy and regulation at ITV, warned that online TV platforms could apply commercial terms set globally, rather than in the UK.
He said such a move could lead companies to demand more than 30% of revenues from broadcasters, as well as control over important customer data and advertiser relationships.
“This is an existential threat to PSBs,” Brooke said, arguing that the bill’s provisions to ensure broadcasters could cover their costs were not the right approach due to the need for commercially funded networks to make money. .
The legislation gives Ofcom a dispute resolution function, allowing it to intervene if PSBs and streamers fail to reach mutually beneficial commercial agreements.
Brooke said the bill needed to give the watchdog “enough strength and discretion. . . to take us to a place of victory, to win the way we have with a Virgin or a Heaven.”
https://www.ft.com/content/d5f503c1-a53e-4b17-821a-459c718ad1b6
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