Friday 29 October 2021
Minister puts massive pressure
BBC commends more impartiality
Nadine Dorries is a trivial fiction writer and Minister of Culture for the British Government. Because she is about to negotiate a new broadcasting contract on the finances of the BBC, the station is under pressure. Now the long-established company is promising a ten-point plan for impartiality.
After a series of scandals and against a background of growing pressure from the British Conservative Government, the BBC wants to reform itself. The public broadcaster published a ten-point plan to better fulfill its mandate of impartiality and to better represent the diversity of the country, both in terms of staff and content.
The plan includes training to improve impartiality, regular review of BBC content, greater transparency and a policy to support whistleblowers. To counter allegations that it is too London-centered, the station is considering moving some of its services to the provinces. In addition, the rules for the active use of online networks by employees are to be tightened.
“The BBC’s editorial values - impartiality, accuracy and trust – are the foundation of our relationship with audiences in the UK and around the world,” said BBC Director General Tim Davie. The changes not only draw lessons from the past, but also ensure that editorial values are protected for the future.
“Talking More About Working Class Children”
The broadcaster, known for its journalistic rigor and independence, had repeatedly been accused by the conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson of overly one-sided reporting, for example on Brexit. The station’s handling of the unfairly famous interview with Princess Diana in 1995 had also caused serious damage to its image.
The BBC will soon be in talks about their contract, which governs their public service mandate. If she was already under pressure from the government, this has increased even further with the appointment of the trivial novel writer Nadine Dorries as the new minister of culture. After taking office in September, Dorries, who as Minister of Culture will lead negotiations on future funding for the station, said she wanted “real changes” at the BBC. She accused her staff of “all having the same political prejudices” and “talking a lot about diversity, but not about working-class children”.