As the public consultation on the BBC nears its end, the right will be out in force to undermine it. But its supporters can do their bit – with this guidance
T
he BBC may have a over one and a half years before its charter expires in December 2027, but the public consultation on its renewal closes next week. All those who care about the BBC’s future should hurry and send in their response before 10 March. Despite strong public support for the national broadcaster, you can bet battalions of enemies driven by the right will be out in force to undermine it.
The timing turns out to be accidentally apt. As chaos is unleashed across the Middle East, the BBC and its array of experienced correspondents has never been more visibly needed. Nightly reports from Jeremy Bowen, Sarah Smith, Lyse Doucet, Orla Guerin, Clive Myrie and all the rest give the country – and the world – trusted updates, as few others can do. The secretary of state for culture, media and sport, Lisa Nandy, a strong defender of the BBC, called its World Service “the light on the hill” in a world of flexible fictitious facts.
Truth is not the first casualty of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, since there was none to start with. The contradictory reasons for Washington launching attacks against Iran mid-negotiation were never honest. The digital infrastructure where so many now access their information is owned and controlled by the world’s six richest men, barons gathering clicks not truth. The BBC, however, is where people can turn in the global information war waged by authoritarian states against open democracies.
