Minister says the change is needed to protect the corporation from repeated ‘culture war’ attacks
The government is to put the BBC’s charter on a permanent footing for the first time, after the corporation said the change was needed to protect it from political interference.
In a significant change to the governance of the BBC, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, said she wanted to grant the corporation’s demand for a permanent charter. She said she wanted to protect it from repeated “culture war” attacks.
BBC executives had argued that the current system in which the broadcaster’s charter had to be renewed every 10 years created a rolling existential threat. That threat has become more acute with the rise of Reform UK, an arch critic of the BBC that has vowed to end the licence fee.
Speaking at the Society of Editors conference in London, Nandy said the BBC was “one of the two most important institutions in our country”, alongside the NHS.
