British television | Scandals at the BBC reopen the debate on its current funding model

2023-07-16 12:58:12

He sex scandal in which the BBC presenter Huw Edwards has been involved this week has caused a huge stir in the United Kingdom and has put British public television back on In the spotlight. There are still many questions that the directors of the chain must answer about how the complaint filed by the mother of the young man who allegedly gave Edwards sexual photographs for three years in exchange for 35,000 pounds (more than 41,000 euros). Despite the fact that the corporation is carrying out an internal investigation to try to clarify what happened, some conservative deputies have taken advantage of the case to question the financing model chain public.

“It’s time for this shelter for perverts funded by taxpayers to become a subscription service”, assured this week the vice president of the Conservative Party and deputy in Parliament, Lee Anderson. Some statements that have been signed by other bench colleagues, who have seen the opportunity to attack the public entity again, with which they have maintained a hard confrontation in recent years for what they consider a biased coverage of Brexit. Boris Johnson himself put on the table, when he was still prime minister, a law reform which establishes the model under which the corporation has obtained a large part of its income for decades.

Closed the investigation against Huw Edwards, the BBC presenter accused of buying sexual photographs of a minor

financing model

This model, based on the annual license fee by households, has allowed the BBC to maintain its independence from political and economic powers throughout its history. The current format is guaranteed until 2027, but the appearance of digital platforms and the radical changes that this has brought about in the audiovisual industry have raised questions about what will happen from then on. “The BBC as we know it has come to an end,” said Johnson’s Culture Minister, Nadine Dorriesat the beginning of last year.

the latest scandals they have given wings to the main detractors of the public chain to support a change in model, which could go through a partial privatization, payment by subscription or a direct funding from the government. “I cannot support a licensing model any longer. This last case [del presentador Huw Edwards] It shows how, once again, the organization seems to be more concerned with managing its own reputation than with facts and transparency,” said the Conservative MP. Marco Longhi.

The sex scandal that has shaken a star BBC presenter, in 5 keys

Other precedents

Some of the voices that support a change in the funding model at the BBC have recalled other scandals that have shaken the public corporation in recent years. Among them the one of Jimmy Savilepresenter of the historical musical program ‘Top of the Pops’, who sexually abused hundreds of women and children during his career, including about thirty patients between the ages of 5 and 75 at the Leeds General Infirmary, where he worked as a volunteer. The scandal came out in 2012 following the presenter’s death, he was buried with full honors in the UK.

Beyond the sex scandals, the BBC has also been the subject of other controversies in recent months. The suspension and subsequent reinstatement of sportscaster Gary Lineker, the network’s highest-paid presenter, called into question the reputation and independence of its managers, especially the CEO, Tim Davie, who has also been in the eye of the hurricane in the case of Huw Edwards. Lineker was removed from his position after criticizing on Twitter the government’s immigration policysomething that the Executive of Rishi Sunak did not like at all and that led to his immediate dismissal, alleging a violation of the editorial rules of the chain.

The BBC was also in the spotlight at the end of April after its then president, Richard Sharp, will present his resignation due to an alleged case of conflict of interest. Sharp was charged with mediating the granting of a 800,000 pound loan (more than 900,000 euros) to Boris Johnson shortly before being appointed to the position, something he did not disclose during the selection process. The former BBC president has insisted that he has not committed no irregularity but he decided to resign from the position so that the case would not be a “distraction from the good work of the corporation.”