The Tories and the BBC Trust and Ofcom

Brian McNair: The BBC Trust is a product of the 'Gilligan Affair' and the 'Hutton Inquiry', which in 2003 led to the resignation of the BBC's Director General, Greg Dyke, and chair of the Board of Governors, Gavyn Davies. 

They 'carried the can' for the Corporation’s seeming failure to grasp the scale of the political firestorm sparked by Andrew Gilligan’s BBC Radio 4's Today report on the allegedly ‘sexed-up’ Weapons of Mass Destruction dossier, or to deal effectively with the “defective” system of editorial management the affair appeared to reveal.

So in January 2007, when Charter renewal provided the opportunity, the Governors were replaced by a Trust. Its members were to have independent oversight of BBC management, scrutinising its decisions on behalf of the licence fee payers, as well as private media organizations concerned about the Corporation’s expansionist tendencies.

During the subsequent two years, the Trust has rejected current Director General, Mark Thompson’s plans for the BBC to produce local news online, but supported the decision not to open up the BBC's iPlayer to ITV and Channel 4. It called the notorious Jonathan Ross-Russell Brand phone-in programme "deplorable”, while supporting the BBC’s argument that the licence fee should not be top-sliced to pay for local commercial TV news. 

Some you win, some you lose, which seems fair to me.

The problem, as its critics see it, is that the Trust is neither fully 'fish nor fowl'; too close to BBC management to act as a truly independent regulator when tough criticism or reining in of the Corporation is required; not close enough to defend it when it comes under fire. BBC managers need an advocate, a buffer between them and the public, the anti-BBC media, and the politicians. The BBC has become a political football, and is in for quite a kicking whoever wins the next General Election. It needs a cheerleader, which the Trust cannot be seen to be, given its other, regulatory role.

New Labour invented the Trust when still smarting from the Gilligan fall-out, but has since cooled on the concept. The Conservatives the other day announced they will retain the basic structure at least until the next Charter renewal, but will rename it the more accountable-sounding Licence-Fee Payers Trust, and replace the current post of executive chair with a non-executive. The new chairman or woman will be mandated to stand up for the BBC in the tough post-election battles to come.

Does any of this matter beyond the Telegraph, Mail and News Corp offices, where the BBC is seen as a break on corporate profit, and anything that disturbs it must be a good thing?

Most of the British people hold the BBC in great affection. But the 'wolves are gathering at the door'. The BBC’s managers have made difficulties for themselves in the way they’ve handled a number of issues in the last few years, and tough oversight is absolutely justified. From the Jonathan Ross salary debate to the mis-handling of John Sergeant’s involvement in the 2008 run of Strictly Come Dancing, the BBC often seems like an organisation blinkered to how the world has changed since 2007, complacent in the face of its enemies.

Is a reformed Trust the way forward, as opposed to replacement by an industry-wide regulatory system? Why not let broadcasting regulators, Ofcom, regulate all broadcast and online media, as proposed earlier by the Tories?

That seems sensible, and efficient, but Ofcom is also now in Tory leader, David Cameron’s sights for the chop after May, so maybe not. And there, actually, is the much more worrying media policy to be coming from the Conservatives. Ofcom has been a huge success since its establishment in 2000. It could do more, including some of the functions of the current BBC Trust.

To cut or do away with it would open up Britain’s carefully nurtured, public interest-oriented media system - a system which remains the best in the world, if we are measuring quality and diversity of content, accessability, political autonomy and other key indicators - to the 'laissez-faire', free-for-all so desired by some in the private media sector. 

And maybe that’s the real story here. Do the Tories intend to dump Ofcom, and keep a de-fanged Trust, with a non-executive chair, whom they can proceed to ignore as they set about the Corporation after the election?

Brian McNair is Professor of Journalism & Communication at the University of Strathclyde.