FREE Press No 195 September–October 2013 £1 The Journal of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

LEVESON LEGACY Regulation Page 3 NATION’s HEALTH becomes More than pathogens are in the air right royal ’ battleground Page 4 MOVES to try to establish pro-proprietor been briefing lawyers, so that applications TIMED OUT press regulation in the UK could yet for judicial review can be lodged as soon Cuts to hours and costs provoke a full-scale constitutional crisis. as circumstances allow. That was the warning from leading Hopes that “improved” regulation could keep voters in the dark Hacked Off figure Brian Cathcart at this be introduced in the United Kingdom fairly year’s annual general meeting of the quickly after Lord Leveson published his Campaign for Press and Broadcasting findings into phone hacking (and other ’ Freedom. activities) now appear dashed – and those Mr Cathcart told the meeting at seeking reforms are trying to consolidate the NUJ’s London headquarters that their positions for the longer term. the process of trying to change press Hopes that a decision could be made regulation following the Leveson Inquiry about a Royal Charter of some sort in and Report had been causing horrendous May were dashed when the proprietors Page 7 headaches for mandarins in Whitehall. submitted their suggested version to the Although parliament – with rare cross- Privy Council. HOT AIR party commonality of mind – had agreed Now, the chances of a decision before Dragon’s fiery breath fails to one proposal that could be brought into the end of this year are decreasing. Even effect by a Royal Charter, the attempt if the Privy Council feels they can find to ignite interest by proprietors to suggest an alternative strong enough justification to reject the without MPs’ agreement could put the proprietors’ version of the charter after Crown in an predicament without recent a summer break, Christmas could be in ’ precedent. sight before the version approved by However, in order to reject proposals parliamentarians reaches a later meeting. from the proprietors – which seek to The dilemma was further complicated MORE CAMPAIGN maintain editors’ supremacy in assessing when Johnston Press editor Gary Shipton NEWS complaints and papers’ responses – civil wrote to the Queen. servants apparently feel that they have Buckingham Palace responded, saying: www.cpbf.org.uk to go through “due process” scrupulously, “this is not a matter in which The Queen to try to pre-empt any and every possible would personally intervene” and adding challenge to their decision through the that the letter had been forwarded to courts. Other campaigning groups have Culture Secretary Maria Miller. AC PLURALITY

Diversity is wider than ownership alone MEDIA PLURALITY is again on the agenda – with the Department publishers will have cut off their noses to spite their faces by for Culture Media and Sport running a consultation process that reducing their capacity during the downturn.) lasts until October. The dominance of wholesalers also makes it difficult for those However, initial documents published by the Department willing to enter the newspaper market. appear to indicate that the concept is being considered in terms The percentage “rule” of newspaper ownership means nothing of “one UK” – and within parameters that may well be too narrow in 90 per cent of Yorkshire, for example. Leeds, Wakefield and to provide a practical, long-term national strategy. That a news the Calder Valley are “JP territory” where Johnston Press’s supply chain is recognised within broadcasting is a start, but Yorkshire Evening Post, Wakefield Express, Halifax Courier and the implications are altogether far wider because, while the UK titles such as the Brighouse Echo or Hebden Bridge Times have served by a plethora of media outlets, within them significant no real competition. (The Yorkshire Post may be an institution monopolies have become established. but its circulation is too small to affect this argument.) PA has become dominant, especially in the regional media, as ITV has just been allowed by Ofcom to reduce its regional a central news source. Many daily regional titles have withdrawn news coverage. The BBC’s local radio stations – and websites their parliamentary correspondents as they have tried to cut – still do stalwart work, but with far fewer staff and larger costs – replacing their coverage with material from PA’s political coverage areas, they should never be considered rivals (even desk. That same PA feed supplies BBC and commercial local to understaffed and under-resourced) local papers. In Leeds, radio, directly or indirectly. the imminent local TV station has said it will take news bulletins Not so long ago, the BBC ran an experiment to see if it could from the city’s Bauer-owned commercial radio station. cut costs by only subscribing to one international television news In Norwich, Archant owns both the Eastern Daily Press and agency – AP or Reuters. The plurality debate has to consider the Mustard TV. In London, the Ledbedev-controlled Independent number of suppliers feeding the news outlets. and Evening Standard will work alongside their local TV station, Far fewer freelances offer stories these days, because budgets London Live. have been cut. The regional news agency “sector” has been From the dark outposts of regional England, this exercise looks forced to “consolidate” as money chases more (cheaper) all too familiar – a Londonist approach to national outlets that material. bears little resemblance to life outside the M25 and one of trying Digital publishing has allowed some new entrants to appear to close a stable door after too many horses have bolted. A quick – but most small, “hyperlocal” operations are finding it almost scan of the consultation document failed to find more than one impossible to earn the revenue necessary from advertising to appearance of the word “regional” and no mention of Scotland, support their efforts. Wales or Northern Ireland. Media policy decisions taken in 2014 Potential newspaper publishers are blocked by the lack will affect what is available in 2044. The reference point should of available presses. (Should an upturn come, the existing surely not be the legislation of 2003 but that of the 1980s. AC Join the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

THE Campaign for Press and MEMBERSHIP RATES PER YEAR AFFILIATION BY ORGANISATION Broadcasting Freedom depends on its a) Individual membership £15 f) Fewer than 500 members £25 membership for day-to-day operating b) Unwaged £6 g) 500 to 1,000 £30 funds – including the production and c) Supporting membershiip £25 h) 1,000 to 10,000 £50 distribution of Free Press. (includes CPBF publications) i) 10,000 to 50,000 £115 Taking out – and maintaining – d) Institutions (eg libraries) £25 j) 50,000 to 100,000 £225 membership will allow the Campaign (includes 10 copies of FREE Press k) More than 100,000 £450 to maintain its work, strengthen its I/We want to join the CPBF and enclose a cheque/PO for£______voice and enhance its profile at a time when the media industry is facing more Name ______repressive political and commercial constraints than for generations. Address ______If you’re interested in a media and journalism that contribute to Postcode ______Tel ______an informed electorate, then please Organisation (if applicable) ______join the Campaign or renew your membership now. Please return to: CPBF, Second Floor, Vi and Garner Smith House, 23 Orford Road, Walthamstow, London E17 9NL Tel: 0 772 984 6146 E-mail: [email protected]

2 • FREE Press • September–October 2013 LEGISLATIVE LEGACY Bringing the health of the nation into focus HEALTH and broadcasting may rarely be mentioned in the same breath – but Bournemouth University media academic Pat Holland has found a worrying similarity – going back 30 years. Here, she explains how her latest book, exploring those WHY OH WHY: Producer Nick Fry’s contribution to the book helps explain how Thatcherite media policy killed one of the biggest and best public service parallels, came to fruition. broadcasters in the ITV network.

WHEN Margaret Thatcher scornfully around the world declaring that “human monetarist approaches and privatisation declared “there’s no such thing as greed and self interest promote welfare”, became embedded in public policy. In society”’, it seemed to encapsulate which came from the BBC Free to Choose 1982 the arrival of Channel Four had contempt for public service and a programmes of 1980; to the series that enriched the public service landscape: rejection of any motivation apart from became the longest running hospital but the 1990 Broadcasting Act changed financial gain. drama in the world. Paul Unwin and the priorities. So when a group of broadcasting Jeremy Brock’s pitch for the popular and Two decades later the trends which historians at Bournemouth University long-running hospital drama Casualty began in the 1980s have intensified. got together to do a project about public began: “In 1948 a dream was born: a We hope that revisiting the past will service in the 1980s we called it “There’s National Health Service. In 1985 the contribute to understanding and no such thing as society”? – with a very dream is in tatters”. combatting the challenges we face today. definite question mark. The programme has been regularly n Broadcasting and the NHS in the One of our members, Sherryl Wilson, filling the schedules since 1986. Thatcherite 1980s: the challenge to had been a nurse at the time and had However the pressures were on public service, Patricia Holland with Hugh worked through those turbulent years, so the broadcasters too, partly because Chignell and Sherryl Wilson, Palgrave we decided that, as well as broadcasting, of developing technology, but also Macmillan, 2013. we would trace the parallel fate of the because, despite intensive campaigning, n www.nosuch-research.co.uk NHS – and we would do it through the broadcast output. I had recently published a book on Jimmy’s presents TV as care regulator current affairs television, but had always believed that political ideas were not A CHAPTER in Pat Holland’s book by Nick knee-jerk regulators put together. He also confined to political slots, so we agreed Gray, the former Yorkshire Television reveals how legislation that put money to look across the genres. I checked out producer who devised Jimmy’s, the became a “care pathway” that deprived my collection of dusty VHS cassettes, programme that not only invented the ITV of the nutrition it needed to avoid the recorded off-air a quarter of a century “docusoap” but opened the doors of the morgue. AC ago (many of them I’d never even NHS, provides a damning assessment of n A MEETING discussing the current watched!) and I’ve spent the last few the dual legacy of that time. situation Challenging public service: the years viewing comedy, popular drama, Mr Gray describes how the programme legacy of the Thatcherite 1980s is due to angry documentaries and whatever else I came into existence – largely under the take place at the Frontline Club in London could track down from the Thatcher era. radar of ITV bosses at the time –but on Thursday September 12 starting at The resulting book re-visits the then also seems to have been a greater 6.30pm. Confirmed speakers include Tom ideological conflicts of the decade, from monitor of care practice than the Care O’Malley, Colin Leys and Tony Stoller. neoliberal guru Milton Friedman bouncing Quality Commission and all today’s September–October 2013 • FREE Press • 3 VACANT POSSESSION: Newspapers such as the Yorkshire Post are not only leaving buildings empty, they are leaving desks in their newsrooms empty too – without thinking about the consequences for their readers. PICTURE: Adam Christie. How many journalists does it actually take to produce a newspaper? Do we know what we do not know? Such ago, I worked with an older colleague who instilled in me the importance questions may appear metaphysical – but of recognising that the minutiae of a they are increasingly real for journalists and district council policy-and-resources sub- committee meeting may not be want the journalism. Adam Christie takes a personal trip local citizenry thinks it “wants” to know, down memory lane. but it does “need” to know – because such decisions affect our day-to-day lives. My WHY – when the world has more news The effects for civil society and an responsibility was then not only to report outlets than ever before – do I (as a educated electorate are just starting to what the councillors had chosen to do, but 50-something) now feel less well-informed become apparent – and they look set to explain the relevance, within about 150 than I was as a child? get much worse before they get better. words, usually fewer. (And people wonder The answer, quite simply, lies in money. In his prescient book The Newscasters; why “citizen” journalism is frowned upon News costs – and takes time. The News Business as Show Business, first by those who try to make such work their Despite having more outlets, less news published in 1977, Ron Powers highlights livelihoods.) is being reported. Cyberspace is spewing the journalistic imperative of appreciating The simultaneous cutting of costs across out comment and “analysis” as never the difference between what audiences (commercial) news operations with the before, but commercial interests and and readers “want” and what they “need” need for “content” to be available “across pressures mean that fewer events are to know. platforms” has come at a price – of basic being covered by (trained) journalists. As a “child journalist”, three decades news coverage.

4 • FREE Press • September–October 2013 In West Yorkshire, for example, one about replacing them. A further reporter Yorkshire region, were visible on screen. coroner has already complained that was on maternity leave while another To those who know what to look for, more reporters are no longer appearing at colleague was on long-term sick leave. footage had clearly originated in London, inquests. One major regional daily paper A few miles away, those at another title being “topped and tailed” with local cue this summer included the outcome of a noted: “While, as a company, we claim we material. court case that came from a press release want more members of the community Staffing levels at national titles are initially published on a police website – a to read our papers, our actions seem to being cut too. Jobs have gone at the week after sentencing. Some campaigners suggest we actually want them to write Telegraph and Independent. One person are getting exercised about coverage of for it, for free. at an NUJ event discussing sexism in the the family courts. Why bother? Probably “Again, we would suggest that there’s media over the summer raised a question only the BBC, if the story is big enough, a problem. User-generated content is not about the coverage of a trial involving could now even think about sending a balanced, particularly when it comes to the alleged abduction of a schoolgirl by a reporter to cover such hearings. sport, and generates more problems for teacher. By June, the daily title covering one of already overworked middle managers, in the 10 largest metropolitan areas of the the form of complaints about inaccurate Commercial constraints UK had just seven full-time reporters, a and unrepresentative articles.” She asked why the reports had no context. part-timer, a part-time feature writer, a Broadcasting has not escaped such Again, the answer lies in the commercial business editor and a news desk assistant pressures either. Not only has the BBC’s constraints on journalists. Reporters have – the equivalent of nine whole-time staff. income not increased for several years, to file copy from the courts, often using They were trying to provide at least the Corporation has had to bear the costs Twitter, then produce a piece so quickly 18-hour-a-day coverage, producing videos of losing Foreign Office funding for the for website publication that they don’t and writing for a website as well as filling World Service, the moves to Salford and have time to make follow-up calls to many pages of newsprint six days a week. New Broadcasting House in London as well broaden or deepen the coverage. The father of the NUJ chapel at the as compensating executives that were Once the police or lawyers have paper wrote to the chief executive of the losing their jobs. provided a comment – for the live TV holding company to say: “The pressure news channels – on the steps of the to pump out news has led to a number of court building after sentencing, everyone high-profile mistakes going into print. Due to holidays, for scarpers, because they should have been “It is also notable that one manager the first two weeks somewhere else two hours earlier. felt unable to take up the offer of a News takes time to collect and process. secondment to (a national title) for fear of in August, the entire “Breaking” news is not whole news. What placing colleagues under unsustainable features ‘team’ the commercial interests perceive as a pressure.” demand for speed has already started to consists of one person damage the quality of news coverage. One-man ‘team’ The arguments about council newspapers – which so exercises the At another daily paper, covering two major The BBC costs about 40 pence per mind of communities secretary Eric cities in the North of England, the NUJ household per day – and remains one of Pickles – adds a further dimension to father-of-chapel reported that: “excluding the biggest employers of journalists (and this. Many local authorities are obliged to specialists and those with responsibility actors and musicians) in the country. Fuss produce their own publications to keep the for the newsdesk, we now have only five is made about the licence fee of £184 residents of their areas (not all of whom general reporters, sometimes producing a a year while, at the same time, in the are either registered to vote or bother to paper in excess of 35 pages. middle of a period of “austerity” many do so) informed about what is happening Due to holidays, for the first two weeks in households consider paying £500 a year, in their areas and how the (more limited August, the entire features ‘team’ consists or more, for Sky subscriptions to be a and constrained) sums they are “granted” of one person, in charge of overseeing priority. by Westminster are spent. Why? Because the production of four supplements, the Listeners complained to Feedback local papers editors are deprived by their usual dedicated run-of-paper pages, Metro on Radio 4 over the summer about proprietors of the money needed to hire and, oh, possibly finding and writing some “incessant” speculation before the birth skilled reporters who can not only cover good features too.” of Prince George of Cambridge, but – councils, but explain the relevance of such At that title, the latest round of having been deprived by politicians of decisions to their readers. The thought redundancies means that two titles the opportunity to pay slightly more for that complex strategic planning decisions are between them set to lose two the BBC, so its journalists can increase can be reported in 140 characters cannot, news editors, a night shift editor, an the story count in their news coverage – surely, raises serious doubts about either experienced sub-editor and their top they seemed totally unaware of the tacit the intelligence or motives of some of investigative journalist. Additionally, a financial pressure facing programme those earning their livings in Whitehall senior reporter, a highly-experienced editors. and Westminster. feature writer-cum-columnist and a third, ITV has had Ofcom clearance to further Curtailing coverage, either deliberately seasoned, reporter had left within the reduce its regional news coverage. Even or commercially accidentally, means previous month. before the formal approval, changes to that voters are less well-informed. Ian While those individuals had found other some regional programmes, including work, management had said nothing Granada Reports and Calendar in the Continued: Page 6. September–October 2013 • FREE Press • 5 From Page 5. misleadingly) have believed over the last few years. Commercial Burrell in the Independent may have said News requires continual reinvestment that papers’ websites are less politically in the “product”, imaginative marketing but far from “colourful” than the printed leader pages, to attract new addicts – perhaps Simon but time bodes against reading some Fox at Trinity Mirror and Ashley Highfield democratic tabloids sufficiently carefully to notice at Johnston Press should be asking the (and ignore) the emotive adjectives and tobacco industry for guidance? – and an THE word is “newsjacking” – and it’s being adverbs that characterise their approach. acceptance that sustainability means championed as a latest fad in trying to So, taken together with the closure of returns of no more than a percentage attract visitors to websites. the COI and a (small p) political increase point or two above the rate of inflation. The underlying idea is that by in the way government decisions are If we want a “free” media, able to tell replication material that is already publicised, the effects – on changing us what is going on in the world with attracting hits to one site on others, the attitudes a reasonable “eyes” will follow. towards, for degree of According to journalist Joe Elvin, writing example, User-generated content is accuracy and on the Business2Community website, welfare and not balanced, particularly balance, then “fluffier content is great for these sorts of benefits or providing consumers. immigration, when it comes to sport, and journalists “Hard-hitting informative articles have should surprise generates more problems for with sufficient their place,” he adds, “but can often be a no one. And, resources (in bit too salesy for readers at this stage of as the political already overworked middle working time and the buying cycle.” elite knows managers, in the form of staffing levels) to The technique is being promoted for all too well, do the job is as organisations who can potentially benefit if you repeat complaints about inaccurate important as any financially by having their products and something often and unrepresentative argument over services compared with others. enough, people regulation. Arguing against the approach, Dai will come to articles However, Howells says: “There is little that annoys believe it. until more me more than blogs riding in on the coat money enters tails of a breaking news story in the hope ‘Baked bean tax’ this particular food chain, be it from of piggybacking some of its hits.” Playing the “fourth estate” card as a less greed, more sensible selling of If blogs really do add long-term journalist may seem high and mighty, but advertising, or the end users either paying credibility to an organisation, then such this trend – perhaps even crisis already (more), then journalists will increasingly approaches should be used with care. One – means that political decisions are not be unable to do what they should be aspect is that more frequent replication being reported, let alone questioned. If doing – telling us what is happening, of the same wire service copy dilutes its the citizenry does not know what is being where, involving whom, and when, and, if impact. done in their name, then how, as voters, a little more cash becomes available, how Perhaps attitudes towards digital can they challenge any policies at the or why too. publishing reflect age and scepticism. ballot box? What point is there in looking for anything As with so much in life, we get what online if every website is publishing the we pay for. Until we learn that the WHAT DO YOU same material? “baked bean tax” that supports free-to- The approach may have some appeal, air commercial broadcasting, freesheets THINK? but without careful thought, it does open or “freesites” is doing us a disservice those using such material to great ridicule because it cannot support the news at a time when reputation is becoming reporting that we need, we will continue Comment on the all-important. to be deprived of the information we need CPBF website Newsjacking by its very nature seems to do our jobs as voters properly. to represent a further diminution of Newspapers and news are sustainable media plurality – because such “content” – but they cannot provide the profits that www.cpbf.org.uk comes cheaply from wire service sources, major conglomerates (and investors who “consolidators” or syndication. Comment have had their expectations raised so is once again free, while original reporting is marginalised. 6 • FREE Press • September–October 2013 DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT Welsh dragon struggles for breath over Assembly’s role DO POLITICIANS make an already difficult “It was said,” she adds, “that Assembly to move on the debate from “traditional situation even harder for journalists? proceedings are often extremely boring. local media platforms” to “seek to explore That question has been raised in AMs themselves look bored, constantly whether Wales’s flourishing hyper-local relation to coverage of the Welsh having their heads lowered looking at movement of community and citizen Assembly – and it is not going away. their computers, not appearing to be journalism, (Welsh-language community Jenny Sims, pictured, ‘engaged’ with speakers. paper) papurau bro and prolific political a freelance journalist Ministers do not answer bloggers is more adept at engaging and member of the NUJ’s questions and are reluctant people in civic and democratic issues than national executive council, to take interventions. mainstream journalism.” described the situation People are too eager to read Ms Butler does however seem to in a letter to Rosemary prepared speeches and not answer her own question – by saying that Butler, presiding officer engage with debate.” the Welsh Government funds a Welsh- of the National Assembly The resource dilemma – see language news website, an observation for Wales, following pages 4-6 –applies here too. that confirms that community and citizen discussions about the “Welsh newspaper editors,” journalism are not financially sustainable. “democratic deficit” there. writes Ms Sims, “say they Ms Butler also admits that she does The media industry in do not have the resources to not expect UK newspapers to have Wales is largely managed from England – send staff to cover more than they already correspondents based at the Cardiff further adding to perceived problems. do, which, in the case of the Western assembly, but “I would,” she adds, Trinity Mirror is the dominant newspaper Telegraph, is not at all. “expect them to clarify to their many publisher – and the country has no truly “People,” she adds, “are interested in Welsh readers that when they report on “national” title of its own. politics ‘as it affects their daily lives’, but health and education issues that don’t Ms Sims believes “there is no likelihood not in the process – which they mostly find apply to Wales, they make it clear that of London-based national newspapers complicated and boring.” they only apply in England. ever again having Welsh correspondents The presiding officer Rosemary Butler “This is the crux of the issue, and what I or Assembly-based political staff. said Assembly Members (AMs) were keen mean by the ‘democratic deficit’.”

Tomorrow’s world? Free PRESS Free Press is published by the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, ARE you a media or journalism 2nd Floor, Vi and Garner Smith House student aged 25 or younger? Are you 23 Orford Road, Walthamstow, London E17 9NL looking for a career in the industry? E-mail: [email protected] If you are, then FREE Press would like to hear from you. Editor: Adam Christie: [email protected] We hope to run a series of pieces Editorial address: PO Box HP346, Leeds LS6 1UL from those starting out about the industry that they would like to see Views expressed in Free Press are those of the contributors and should not be in the UK (or worldwide) in 20 or 50 regarded as formal CPBF policy. years’ time. Contributions should be between Ideas, comments, letters, articles are all welcomed. Please contact the editor. 500 and 1,000 words. Selected articles will appear in © 2013 Copyright in the words and images in Free Press remains with the FREE Press while others will be originators. All rights reserved. published on the CPBF website. So, if you’re interested, please Printed by Swallowmax Ltd, 43 Aden Road, Enfield EN3 7SY contact the editor, Adam Christie, by e-mail: adam_christie@journalist. This edition went to press on August 2, 2013. com. The deadline for the November/December 2013 edition is Friday October 4.

September–October 2013 • FREE Press • 7 DEBATE Bring back governors to help Hall rescue the BBC

CHRIS ASPINALL offers some personal – and potentially controversial – thoughts about how to restore public confidence and protect the Corporation from the bullies.

THE BBC may have a place in many board from the BBC Trust should be for the nation for just 40 pence per hearts, but how can the Corporation be regarded as an experiment that has household per day is no longer realistic; defended in the face of its performance failed. That Trust chairman Lord Patten the austerity argument against a licence over the last few years? was left so embarrassingly exposed in fee increase has been totally devalued Some may have sympathy and front of the House of Commons Public by viewers’ willingness to pay more than understanding for Lord Hall, the latest £500 a year for alternative subscription director general, as he tries to pick up services. the pieces from a catalogue of disasters CAN YOU ADD TO I can not defend the decisions of Mark that some see as starting just after Thompson. Indeed I will not defend 6am one day on May 29, 2003 – when THIS DEBATE? the decisions of Mark Thompson. I will duty Today programme presenter however defend the BBC. John Humphries invited then defence Some BBC managers – past and correspondent Andrew Gilligan to Comment on the present – do not merit any defence. comment on the death of government CPBF website Their failure to appreciate and protect scientist David Kelly. the organisation’s importance increases Anyone with public or corporate affairs perceptions of incompetence that cannot experience awake enough at that time www.cpbf.org.uk and should not be excused. of the morning could hear the sound of They were employed on salaries a naked flame being applied to the blue sufficient to compensate them for public touch paper. Accounts Committee by his lack of exposure – and many of them clearly Somehow, in the circumstances of the knowledge of executive pay-offs alone failed. That they were then paid-off so day, it seemed inevitable that – whatever reveals that this separation of powers handsomely further emphasises their hopes one may have had that someone has not been an effective replacement failure to recognise the indefensible. would get there in time – an explosion for the board of governors. Politicians have long sought to was inevitable. Looking around the world, it becomes undermine an organisation that every That the then director general, Greg evident that – for a democracy to be side sees as unaccountably critical. Dyke, was a casualty of the consequent healthy – a news organisation is needed Recently, through financial strictures, Hutton Report was regarded by many that is protected (by statute) from as they may be succeeding – aided by with dismay. Mr Dyke was seen as much political and commercial influence previous senior executives. approachable, accessible and responsive and interference as possible. Chris Patten seems to have found by BBC employees, especially outside The legal requirements for balance himself as the fall guy for political London. His departure can be seen as the which have characterised the BBC’s positioning that was not sufficiently start of a trend that led to a diminution in output for decades and which were also thought through. the calibre of BBC management that may enshrined in UK commercial broadcasting Tony Hall is just a few months into only have been halted by the arrival of have provided the country with a the job – but his actions (both public Tony Hall. More senior BBC figures were healthier media than many others. and less public) suggest that he is left trying to find not only a new DG at The democratic ignorance of much of aware of the legacy he has inherited short notice but also a replacement for the US can be directly attributed to the and what he needs to do to re-establish departing chairman of the Governors conflicting commercial interests of the an organisation that is strong enough Gavin Davies. conglomerates that dominate the media to resist political and commercial Mark Thompson’s tenancy of the DG’s across the Atlantic. The “commercial interference. office has attracted widespread censure, model” is, by its very nature, too flawed Of course, that cannot be without and understandably so. to serve a representative democracy if accountability – which means that the Clearly, the politicians cannot deny all corporate interests can outspend and most important and immediate problem responsibility, as former BBC chairman out-shout individual voters’ opinions. is to try to find a practical replacement Sir Christopher Bland has said. The BBC – per se – is a great institution. for the BBC Trust. Perhaps that’s a job for The “separation” of the executive Expecting it to do as much as it does Greg Dyke and Sir Christopher Bland?