The BBC is a world reference in any discussion of the independence of the public news media. It is impossible to find a company that is more sheltered from the influence of power in democratic regimes.more willing to engage in self-criticism and more ready to defuse attempts to use it. Therefore, the dismissal of the former football player was worrisome in every respect. Gary Lineker, host of ‘Match of the Day’. The trigger for it all was a tweet by Lineker in which he compared the immigration policy of the Rishi Sunak government to Germany in the 1930s; this was something that the station management felt violated neutrality.
That’s why it’s surprising Familiar faces from the field of sports were not included in the programs last weekend in solidarity with Lineker.and the decision of the informative spaces to report on the development of the crisis and to replace the presenter in the position of BBC managing director Tim Davie last Monday. Or perhaps it wasn’t so surprising that the BBC made an immediate correction to restore the cherished independence.
At a meeting of European information councils a few years ago, a representative of the British delegation told the following anecdote: During the first Gulf war, one of the officials responsible for implementing the plan of action made his reservations. One minister in the room was quite clear: “It’s not the BBC, son”. So there is no room for opinions different from the Government’s here.
solid structure
This exceptional independence is possible because British taxpayers pay an annual fee to fund the BBC. With the money collected, the budget of the public radio and television channels is met; The CEO and his team are not dependent on majority and minority votes in the House of Commons.and even less than the government of the day. This structure has survived wars, political crises, and major scandals such as those that shook the BBC in November 1995 when Diana of Wales was interviewed by Martin Bashir: “We were three in that marriage,” said the princess. Or in October and November 2012, when the Newsnight news program mistakenly presented the Conservative Party’s former treasurer, Sir Robert Alistair McAlpine, as implicated in several pedophilia cases. A few weeks later, the same space removed a documentary to avoid disrupting the televised memorial service of Jimmy Saville, who died the year before, a very famous DJ in the ’70s and ’80s, who was revealed to have been involved in dozens of sexual acts. harassment of women, including minors.
Generally speaking, none of these scandals have permanently damaged the BBC’s image. In a certain sense, their ability to metabolize them increased their prestige, but not their power to extend their status to other public operators. With ad hoc commissions that mechanically reproduce the structure of the ruling Parliament and tend to entrust information to supposedly reliable voices, nothing has stopped the proliferation of structures for political control of the public media.
A good example of the affinity between knowledge and power is the conditions that arose in France with the establishment in 1964 of the ORTF, which until 1974 was responsible for public radio and television. Experience in the UK by the General President Charles de Gaulle, personally acquainted with the persuasion and mobilization capacity of the radio, inspired the creation of a company subject to the needs of the government: political discussion was by no means prohibited, but there was an unprecedented planting of voices and faces of compassion towards the general on the radio waves. It is not surprising that François Mitterrand did not refer to an audio-visual version of an all-encompassing personal power in ‘Le coup d’État permanent’, published in 1964.
Following the victory of Tele5 owner Silvio Berlusconi in the 2001 parliamentary elections was an extreme example of the political exploitation of the public media. Majority in parliament allowed control of RAI, conflict of interest was obvious, but Berlusconi has never relinquished ownership of his chain or imposed his own criteria on the RAI supervisory commission.. In fact, the prime minister monopolized the general direction of information and discussions in the audiovisual field for years. As an Italian journalist said at another information council meeting, Berlusconi has always had two speakers.
In Spain, the closest approach to the BBC model occurred towards the end of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s second term. The experiment was short-lived, the PP replaced the parliamentary oversight mechanism, and the debates on independence, impartiality and objectivity were reproduced. Meanwhile, Walter Lippmann’s statement in ‘Public Opinion’ faded into oblivion: The fundamental problem of democracy is the accuracy of the news.