PINF's Campaign and Communications Manager Beckie Shuker sets out PINF's full response to the Government's Green Paper on the BBC Charter Review
This week, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee kicked off its inquiry on the BBC Charter Review, interviewing prominent figures from media and broadcasting to inform its recommendations to shape the new Charter.
We thought it was about time we published our full response to the Government's green paper setting out their vision for the future of the BBC.
Putting local communities first: PINF's response to the BBC Green Paper
We believe that the BBC Charter Review is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reset and reimagine the relationship between the BBC and local communities, putting local people in the driving seat and building resilient local news ecosystems for years to come.
The BBC helped bind this country together through the twentieth century, beginning with the construction of the transmission towers. Right now, we are living in an era of intense information fragmentation, with a fast-changing news ecosystem struggling to keep up with the scale of the current challenge.
Working in deep partnership with local news providers, a community-first BBC could increase help social cohesion into the twenty-first century, securing a better local news ecosystem to support stronger, better-informed, more connected communities for future generations.
As Patrick Younge, Chair of the British Broadcasting Challenge, explained to the select committee on Tuesday (see below), we are living in a world where 6 men own or control most of the platforms through which media is shared, produced or consumed. In that context, the question of what the BBC can do for local communities to address information needs feels more pressing than ever.
Our vision of a community-first BBC, developed through extensive dialogue over the last year with local news providers and community representatives from across the UK, sets out how we think that should happen.
Firstly, a new Partnership Agreement between the BBC and the local news sector should set out the overarching aims of the relationship. This Agreement should include eligibility criteria for local news partners and expectations for how the BBC should use and credit the work of local news partners in its output.
Local News Forums in every nation and region should inform this partnership. Representing a cross section of the local community, they should be championed by a dedicated BBC Board member and subcommittee of the Board to monitor and evaluate the partnership.
A two-way Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme would include core modules on BBC editorial standards and a wide rnge of other modules on topics including law, ethics, technology and co-creational media, some of which would be delivered by local news partners.
An expanded Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) should enhance the democratic accountability of local government and other public services. Reporters should continue to 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.
A new Local News Commissioning Fund (LNCF), should support the production of original journalism in the public interest, including long-form, investigative and co-creational forms of journalism. 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.
Finally, 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, should provide a prominent, popular platform for BBC, LDRS and LNCF content, with full attribution and links to local news partners.
We’re looking forward to continuing to engage with Government, BBC colleagues, local journalists and communities to realise this vision - if you want to get involved, please do contact us.
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