
Response to Richard Sharp’s resignation
Following Richard Sharp’s resignation as BBC chairman, we would like to make the following points:…
To promote a wide-ranging discussion about the future of UK Public Service Broadcasting – its potential for good, its ability to transmit truth, its institutional place at the heart of the UK, and how it can be improved for the digital age.
To have this debate in public.
Sir David Attenborough, CH, OM, FRS, a world-renowned public service broadcaster and naturalist, voted most trusted man in Britain, has now joined this call for a broad public debate over the future of the public service broadcasting ecosystem he has helped to create.
“We believe that this is the moment – in an era of misinformation and the ‘weaponised’ politicisation of news and opinion – to build up our Great British public service broadcasters rather than diminish them; to stop short-sighted political and financial attacks; to provide a vision for the future that allows our PSB system to grow as a trusted, independent, network that is worthy of the UK, its citizens and the world.”
The government has set up a panel to advise the Secretary of State on the future of public service broadcasting. This panel meets in secret, there is no public record of its agenda, discussions or recommendations and there is no undertaking to publish its final report.
Lord Myners has made a Freedom of Information request but it has been refused. The government has acknowledged that there are valid reasons to ask for this information to be made public but prefers to keep it secret. We believe the future of public service broadcasting is an issue which is too important to be decided behind closed doors.
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