Government Finalises Panel for BBC Charter Review
The Government has announced the appointment of an independent panel to oversee the BBC’s charter review, featuring six media heavyweights who will advise Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell on key issues throughout the process.
The panel was agreed with Terry Burns, Tessa Jowell’s independent advisor on the charter review, and includes Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey, provost of Queen’s College Oxford Alan Budd and director of the London School of Economics Howard Davies.
Vice chancellor of Keele University Janet Finch, former director of television and director of programmes at Channel 4 Tim Gardam and Alice Rawsthorn, director of the Design Museum and former Financial Times journalist, will also sit on the panel advising the culture secretary.
The themes due for consideration by the panel have all been defined by a public consultation on the future of the BBC which began the charter review process and will be taken through to charter renewal in 2006.
Commenting on the panel’s appointment, Tessa Jowell, said: “I am delighted that Terry has secured such a strong cast list for his panel. The breadth of knowledge, range of views and extensive experience contained within it will prove invaluable.”
She added: “We launched this charter review by asking viewers and listeners what they want from the BBC – a first for a charter review. I will now look to Terry and his panel to marshal and formulate the arguments that have come out of this consultation, as we move towards forming a considered view of what the BBC of the future should look like.”
The BBC’s operations have already come under scrutiny, with Ofcom criticising the Corporation earlier this year in its review of public service broadcasting. The media super-regulator painted a damning picture terrestrial broadcasters’ current content, demanding that BBC use its ‘unique and privileged’ funding status to make programmes reflecting the purposes and character of public service broadcasting (see Ofcom Paints Bleak Picture Of Public Service Broadcasting).
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has also criticised the BBC, attacking the Corporation’s increasingly aggressive approach to programming and self-promotion in its submission to the charter review. The industry body condemned the Corporation’s decision to demote flagship news programmes like Panorama to Sunday nights, while mass audience offerings like Fame Academy and EastEnders have gained prominence in the BBC’s schedules (see IPA Report Deplores Aggressive And Commercial BBC).
DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk
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