The BBC’s conflicting stance on quality journalism is hard to reconcile
Opinion
While the Beeb trumpets its role in delivering trusted, impartial news around the world, it’s difficult to see the way it handled the axing of HardTalk as anything other than an act of vandalism.
Reading the BBC’s annual plan for 2025/26 is not quite as bad as trying to interpret steel production plans for the old Soviet Union or listening to the complaints of perpetually discontent farmers — but it still needs deciphering and a bit of reading between the lines.
On top of that, you also need to watch for the things that aren’t said and changes of strategy that aren’t highlighted or properly discussed — just as the BBC announced its biggest-ever “public engagement exercise”.
The organisation says it faces an unprecedented “funding challenge” and that its annual income has fallen by £1bn in real terms compared with 15 years ago. The fall comes from a combination of inflation, government action and the drying up of some international co-production money.
But this year the BBC will still raise no less than £6bn from the licence fee — which rose this week by £5 to £175.50 — and its commercial operations.
Many media organisations would be very pleased indeed to have £6bn to fund their operations at a time when considerable savings can flow from advances in communications technology. It is a privilege to have such a sum, much of it underwritten by law.
Plenty of good news
A lot of the news about the BBC is in fact good news, considering the ever-intensifying competition it faces in almost everything it does.
BBC services are used by 35m adults a day (64%) in the UK and 46m a week (84%), with a remarkable 95% using the BBC at least once a month — far greater reach than any other media brand.
When journalists meet, such as at last week’s Society of Editors conference, many wring their hands about “the missing under-35s”, too many of whom have abandoned conventional media for the likes of TikTok.
The BBC has been squeezed in this demographic like everyone else, but having a weekly reach of 68% for 16- to 34-year-olds is a considerable achievement and puts the BBC in the top five among young adults.
It’s not impossible that the position of mainstream media could improve if the government took tougher action against online media by making them take responsibility for the damaging and often false information they spread. Paying a fair share of taxation on their profits would also help.
Universal public service
In the meantime, the BBC says it will expand BBC News on TikTok and Instagram.
As discussions for the next BBC Charter gets under way, the BBC will make the case “for a universal public service for a generation” and look for a charter that safeguards its independence and “provides sufficient reliable funding”.
A universal public service suggests that a universal method of payment — somewhat like the licence fee — might be necessary.
Certainly, another “universal” method of funding has been explicitly ruled out by culture secretary Lisa Nandy, because it would undermine the BBC’s independence from government.
But there is the slight possible complexity that Nandy might not be looking after the negotiations for the new royal charter for much longer.
The Mail on Sunday was clearly briefed at the weekend that Nandy could face the axe in a summer reshuffle because, it was alleged, she did not work hard enough.
An unnamed source said “Lisa seems to work about two days a week on her portfolio” — something that may or may not be true, but would certainly suggest that somebody was out to get her.
Whoever is culture secretary when the decisions about funding the BBC are taken, they would be well-advised to put the contentious issue into the hands of an independent tribunal and take the politics out of it.
The BBC also says it will continue to “engage with the UK government to secure a sustainable long-term financial future for the BBC World Service”.
If there was ever a need to have a properly funded World Service, and the reliable and factual information it provides, it is now in the midst of international crisis after international crisis.
It was former chancellor George Osborne who made the BBC pay for the World Service simply to offload a slice of public spending and it is time to return financial responsibility to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office from whence it came.
As BBC chairman Samir Shah emphasised this week, the BBC’s role has never been more important both in the UK and around the world to deliver trusted, impartial news in a world of disinformation.
Hard talk on journalism
Yes, indeed, and some of the most vital roles that BBC journalism can play is to add analysis, context and explanation to the endless froth of “breaking news”.
But let’s remember that most of Newsnight’s journalists departed and the programme was shortened and turned into an interview, discussion and chat show in May 2024.
Then, last week, the BBC’s dedication to high-quality journalism took the form of closing down HardTalk, one of its best-known international brands, and making Stephen Sackur, the programme’s host of 19 years, redundant.
The three-times-a-week interview programme was watched by the world’s political elites and by up to 70m people a week in 200 countries. If you add in podcasts and a World Service radio version, the overall number, Sackur believes, rises to around 170m.
Three weeks after the decision to close the programme, Sackur says he was invited to a meeting with the BBC’s head of news, Deborah Turness — the first time he had ever met her — but there would be no change of mind.
According to Sackur, he never got to meet BBC director-general Tim Davie and made it clear to The Guardian that he did not leave voluntarily, alongside his eight-strong highly experienced team.
Just as the BBC trumpets its life-long attachment to independent journalists in its new annual plan, it is difficult to see the end of HardTalk, and the way it was done, as anything other than an act of vandalism.
But, don’t worry, there will be no shortage of breaking news…
Raymond Snoddy is a media consultant, national newspaper columnist and former presenter of NewsWatch on BBC News. He writes for The Media Leader on Wednesdays — bookmark his column here.