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fp178a:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 24/10/2010 12:08 Page 1 FREE Press No 178 September-October 2010 £1 Journal of the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom BBC FALLS ROB SAFAR Letters to Cable ON TORIES’ from right, left and centre SWORD ELEANOR CAMPION, a volunteer with the campaigning group 38 Degrees, handed HE FUTURE of the BBC under the S4C was planning to cut 25 per cent of in a 19,000-signatory letter at Business ConDem coalition government was staff. Secretary Vince Cable’s office in London determined in October as the cor- The BBC must also underwrite the on October 8 (above). poration accepted a 16 per cent roll-out of the digital radio network. In Its message, 38 Degrees said, was that spending cut, offering no resist- present terms the extra costs were sum- “we’d all be behind him if he decides to Tance and pre-empting any campaign on marised at £340 million a year. stop Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB power its behalf. The battle was brief, one-sided and grab.” A six-year freeze in the licence fee and decisive. In its trepidation the BBC had The CPBF got together with 38 the imposition of additional liabilities already offered to freeze the licence fee Degrees to launch the online petition, will put increasing pressure on program- for two years – an offer the government which asked Vince Cable to call in the ming and the corporation’s public service gratefully accepted – but was then con- anticipated bid from the Murdochs’ News obligations. fronted with a threat of having to cover Corporation to buy out rival shareholders The cuts were agreed in 48 hours’ des- the cost of free TV licences for the over- in BSkyB. The long-awaited bid must be perate negotiations amid the crisis atmos- 75s, estimated at £556 million a year. The submitted to the EU for approval but the phere of the government’s spending threat was soon withdrawn but it had the UK Secretary of State can order an review which was announced the same effect and managers grabbed at the alter- inquiry on public interest grounds. day. native. The concern is that the Murdochs could The deal means They were following Director-General abuse the complete control of Sky to turn ● Freezing the BBC licence fee at Mark Thompson’s well-tried tactic of it into a heavily politicised right-wing £145.50 for six years, a 16 per cent cut in “getting your capitulation in first”; Mark station following Rupert Murdoch’s real terms, in the period up to the renew- Thompson’s relations with government personal inclinations and the style of his al of the BBC charter in 2016. Annual have always been characterised by blus- Turn to page 2 income is £3.6 billion. ter, indecision and surrender, at great cost ● The BBC paying for the World Service to public broadcasting in the UK. (currently funded by the Foreign Office) The deal was not entirely forced on the at £272 million a year, plus £25 million BBC. In an email to staff Mark Thompson JUST HOW BAD for the associated BBC Monitoring serv- said the initiative had come from the cor- ice at Caversham near Reading. poration: “The idea of reaching an early ● The BBC running the Welsh language multi-year settlement came from the BBC IS FOX NEWS? broadcaster S4C at £102 million a year. and negotiations on it began more than a ● The BBC to meet the cost of broadband week ago.” internet roll-out to rural areas at £150 Tory Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt The TV fate that million a year and and to pay for local TV commented that it “must be the fastest and online services at £25 million a year. negotiation in the corporation’s 83-year Britain could face Both the World Service and S4C were history”, confirming that the government already facing demands for big spending had not expected to be dealing with the cuts. Several World Service language licence fee so quickly. pages 4-5 services in eastern Europe were under He added: “The assurances I have threat from savings of 25-40 per cent, and Turn to page 2 FREE Press September-October 2010 1 fp178a:Free Press template changed fonts.qxd 24/10/2010 12:08 Page 2 News All together to stop Murdoch stranglehold on BSkyB From page one Prime Minister Silvio Fox News channel in the US. Berlusconi who owns Italy’s Battle lines were clearly biggest commercial drawn after months of broadcaster, Mediaset. skirmishing. The deal would represent “a Murdoch’s team were reduction in media plurality to bullish with BSkyB recording an unacceptably low level.” record new subscriptions for The level of opposition is a TV/internet/telephone big test for Vince Cable and a packages, with a 36 per cent headache for the Tories in the month on month increase in coalition. They came to power September. BSkyB is just with the support of the about to net its 10 millionth Murdoch press and employ subscriber. former News of the World But ranged against them, as editor Andy Coulson as well as 38 Degrees, the unions director of communications. and the CPBF, was almost all Vince Cable’s Liberal the British national press not Vince Cable (right) with Tory culture secretary Jeremy Hunt Democrats enjoyed no such owned by the Murdochs. support, but whether they Vincent Cable has received be considerable. interest.” have the stomach to stand up another protest letter, signed Most influential was the The media bosses were to the Tories is another matter. by the Telegraph, Mail and Financial Times, which carried joined by Claire Enders, He would have 25 days Mirror groups, the Guardian the campaign into its pages, founder of the influential after submission of the bid to and Financial Times, plus the with a leading article that said media consultancy Enders decide whether to order an BBC, Channel 4 and BT. there was a “clear risk” that Analysis, who also wrote to inquiry on the grounds that It was an unprecedented News Corporation could Vince Cable, and to Culture “media plurality” could be collaboration between rival “dominate the media scene, Secretary Jeremy Hunt, compromised by other publishers, and their motive lock out challengers and stifle expressing her concerns. newspapers and may have been their the diversity of debate. She said the proposed broadcasters being put at combined rivalry with the “Mr Cable should call a halt takeover represented a risk of closure or by Murdoch press, but the to establish whether this “Berlusconi moment” for the democratic debate being pressure they can exert must really would serve the public country, referring to Italian restricted. BBC throws in towel over licence fee freeze From page one another costly crisis of its own making. secured on magazines, local and online Licence fee revenue is supposedly sep- activities will also give some comfort to arate from Treasury funds, and one of the the BBC’s commercial rivals that the most serious consequences of this sorry licence fee will not be used to blast them tale has been to blur that distinction: link- out of the water” – implying that the BBC ing BBC finances to the public spending had made some not-yet-announced con- review has conceded that its operations cessions on these vital areas of it output. are subject to government will. But Mark Thompson said it was “a To claim this settlement as an achieve- realistic deal in exceptional circum- ment, or even “reasonable”, is ridiculous. stances securing a strong independent The BBC’s Charter runs until 2016 and BBC for the next six years.” there was no way its independence could BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons be challenged until then; the licence fee said it was “a good deal for licence-fee had likewise been negotiated and could payers as it protects the independence of BBC Director-General Mark Thompson: not be reduced. The BBC could hardly the BBC... It gives us clarity of funding erratic relations with government have done worse than to accept a freeze and takes the discussion about the right for those six years. level of licence fee out of play.” against the cuts. It has not even secured editorial inde- “There is no doubt that the settlement The BBC’s finances are further exacer- pendence for the World Service, which will present us with some difficult choic- bated by its bitter dispute with staff over has been funded by Foreign Office grants. es, but importantly, these choices will the future of their pensions. There have Sir Michael Lyons said in a BBC inter- remain firmly in the hands of the BBC been successive reductions in the benefits view that government will “have a voice Trust and we will of course seek the of the scheme and in the summer union on the opening of new services and clos- views of licence fee payers.” members voted by more than 90 per cent ing of existing services ... The government No-one however sought licence fee for a series of two-day strikes against a bid will retain these rights”. payers’ views over the corporation’s to do away with the final salary scheme When it comes to charter renewal in agreement to take on extra liabilities, altogether. 2016, whichever government is in power arguably outside the BBC’s charter, in A strike in early October was called off will no doubt set out to weaken the pub- return for a reduced income. The speed of after a marginally improved offer was lic service element.