BBC: Where there is danger, there is opportunity - Time for change?

 For some of us, moves concerning the BBC and the now really and trully defunct BBC World Service (what now exists is merely a skeleton service and a shadow of what used to be the record breaking broadcaster) were a catastrophic mistake. The BBC actually withdrew from the international arena, very much like other international broadcasters.

In 1991, I attended a gathering organised by an organisation based in Barcelona. Representatives from the BBC, Radio Netherlands, Deutsche Welle, Radio France International, Radio Austria International, Radio Moscow International, and others met in Sitges. What happened afterwards was forseable. For several broadcasters the writing was on the wall. In Britain, the move towards Value for Money (translated as Value for Rubbish) was already underway and one of the promoters of such move was none other than John Birt (now Lord Birt). Kenneth Clarke and Tony Blair sealed the fate of the radio and television services provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Britain lost and lost pre-eminence in many parts of the world including Latin America.

Year after year, budget cuts followed by very bad management have led to more and more service cuts at the BBC. There was a time when the BBC was supposed to present two opposite points of view and have three independent sources that could confirm the veracity of what was being reported. Not anymore. In the rush to very much mirror the private sector, the BBC have lost credibility dramatically. The move to replace BBC presenters with agency staff was catastrophic and there were reports of presenters being adviced to register as external service providers in order to avoid taxes. Having what are supposed to be BBC flagship programmes presented by agency presenters was not a happy idea and the recent Lineker Affair is a clear example of what is wrong about the BBC - vast amounts of TV Licence paid to external presenters and producers while the BBC is forced to scale down the organisation because of budgetary constraints.