In reporting on
the proposed new charter for the BBC, the Western Mail chose to lead with the proposal that
Wales would be guaranteed a place on the new BBC board. How nice for Wales – another opportunity for
a Welsh voice to participate in discussions before being over-ruled by the
majority from England. (Unless, of
course, the chosen representative is carefully selected to be the sort of
person who won’t make waves in the first place.)
It’s an obvious
attempt to find a ‘safe’ Welsh angle on the news by another organisation not
particularly well-known for making waves either. But I didn’t think that it was the most
significant element of the announcement from a Welsh perspective. For that, we have to go further down the
report, until we reach the part where the UK Culture Secretary said that one of
the BBC’s “many responsibilities” was
to “bring people together” and
support “greater cohesion, not least
among the nations of the United Kingdom.”
Now the quaint
idea that many have that the BBC is somehow an ‘impartial’ reporter of events
has never been true; it has always been the tool of the establishment,
presenting all news from an establishment viewpoint. But it seems to me that this is taking that
lack of impartiality one stage further; this is giving the BBC an explicit
responsibility to act as a tool for one particular outlook, and promote the
idea that the nations of the UK are a homogeneous whole. It says a lot about the self-styled “national
newspaper of Wales” that it treats that as almost an addendum to the glorious
news about us having a representative who can always be outvoted.
We need a
better media than this in Wales; and in the field of broadcasting, the BBC
needs to be broken up into an EBC, a WBC, a SBC and a NIBC, each with its own
charter decided by the relevant devolved parliament. And the sooner that happens the better.
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3 comments:
Okay, let's split the BBC up. But this will mean each region having to pay full whack for 'their' national BBC.
Is this okay with Wales and Welsh households? I don't think so.
The answer to that question probably depends in no small measure on the scope of the individual national broadcasting organisations. But that's a rather different question.
Never mind what one UK Cultural Minister says - they come and they go. Read the legal documents which have legal force and which last, until replaced. The Royal Charter.
The 2010 Charter states the Public Purposes which every one would expect, from the days of Lord Reith today: anodyne, worthy, and important in a crisis eg war against Hitler.
The draft 2016 Charter, as you say, contains a new Public Purpose "The BBC
should bring people together for shared experiences and help contribute to the social
cohesion and wellbeing of the United Kingdom." Many will say that the BBC has acted for some time as though this new draft Public Purpose is already in force. Well it has been kicking around for a while now.
Yes, the House of Lords might delete this. But why should they? Its fairly anodyne, and there is a lot of counterbalancing guff about respecting nations, diversity etc.
Its like a lot of things in Wales, to get the improvements we need, to pay our £15bn a year deficit, we have got to get moving, perhaps do something eye-catching, raise hell.
Doesn't sound like Wales in 2016, does it.
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