PINF Executive Director Jonathan Heawood sets out the six pillars needed in the next Charter for a community-first BBC
Another day, another BBC crisis.
And yet, beneath the noise, the BBC continues to go about its work. And we should all be grateful for that. The UK still has a less polarised news ecosystem than the United States, and our public service broadcaster plays an important role here, sincerely trying to hold us together on a shared platform of facts and constructive debate.
But how much longer can the BBC play this role?
The news ecosystem is changing fast: the rise of opinionated broadcasting; the dominance of big tech platforms; the fragmentation of audiences; the disengagement of young people from legacy media; the continuing erosion of trust in institutions.
Any one of these factors would be challenging for the BBC. Taken together, they form an existential crisis for an organisation that – even at its best – still carries the whiff of 1920s paternalism.
How can we revitalise public service broadcasting as we hurtle towards the middle years of the twenty-first century? How can we ensure that our news ecosystem is both universally accessible and tailored to the needs of more than 70 million individuals?
At PINF, we believe that the current review of the BBC Charter offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset the relationship between the BBC and the public. This isn’t just about the details of programming or governance (important though they are). It’s about a new settlement between the BBC and the communities of the UK that puts local people in the driving seat.
Our vision of a community-first BBC has six elements, which we have developed through extensive dialogue over the last year with local news providers and community representatives from across the UK.
1. A Partnership Agreement between the BBC and the local news sector should set out the overarching aims of this relationship. This Agreement should be signed by the BBC and relevant bodies from the local news sector. It should include eligibility criteria for local news partners (probably modelled on the definition of relevant publisher in the Online Safety Act) and expectations for how the BBC should use and credit the work of local news partners in its output.
2. Local News Forums in every nation and region to inform this partnership. These forums should represent a cross section of the local community and should be championed by a dedicated BBC Board member. This person should command the confidence of both the BBC and the local news sector and should chair a subcommittee of the BBC Board to monitor and evaluate the partnership, periodically review the Partnership Agreement and ensure that the views of the Local News Forums are reflected in the BBC’s decision-making.
3. A two-way Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme, to include core modules on BBC editorial standards and a wide range of other modules on topics including law, ethics, technology and co-creational media, some of which would be delivered by local news partners, thus facilitating two-way learning between BBC professionals and their colleagues across the sector.
4. An expanded Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) to enhance the democratic accountability of local government and public services (health, education, justice, welfare, etc.) by supporting the employment of reporters in the local news sector. As now, reporters should produce content to be shared between the BBC and local news partners, but the process for procuring local partners should be open to a wider range of news providers, and suppliers should be more rigorously monitored against the commitments in their applications.
5. A new Local News Commissioning Fund (LNCF), to support the production of original journalism in the public interest, including long-form, investigative and co-creational forms of journalism through a commissioning process whereby local news partners could approach the BBC with ideas, or the BBC could put out tenders on topics of interest. The Local News Forums should set clear aims for the LNCF in each part of the UK, such as enhancing civic participation, providing solutions to problems, facilitating community cohesion and engaging underrepresented groups, and the LNCF should be monitored against these outcomes.
6. A new BBC Platform for Local News, sitting as appropriate within each of the BBC’s products but primarily visible in the BBC News product, to provide a prominent, popular platform for BBC, LDRS and LNCF content, with full attribution and links to local news partners.
By working in deep partnership with local news providers, the BBC would be able to tune into the needs of local communities, covering each and every one of the UK’s 70 million stories, not from the top down, but from the bottom up. We believe that a total budget of £70m would be appropriate for the community-first programme – effectively returning one pound from the licence fee to every person in the UK.
At a time when loud voices are calling on the Government to defund the BBC, a community-first approach can help restore trust, engagement and loyalty. It can also help to regenerate our local news ecosystem, crowding in new energy and investment for local news providers that have the potential to reach large audiences in partnership with the BBC.
We think this is a win-win-win, for the BBC, for local news and – most importantly – for local communities.
We will be sharing our vision with the Government in response to their Green Paper on the future of the BBC – deadline 10 March. Please get in touch if you would like to support our submission or echo our recommendations in your own response. Every voice counts here. Even a short and simple submission is better than no response, which leaves the field open for the enemies of the BBC and public interest news.
Jonathan Heawood is Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation.
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