August 2005
Nationwide debates on the future for the next decade of the British public broadcaster, or the BBC, continue today in the United Kingdom as the current Royal Charter, which stipulates the BBC's role, scope of services, etc., will expire at the end of 2006.
Until 1980's, BBC Charter Renewals were customarily reviewed by committees of inquiry into broadcasting set up by the Government, but the previous 1996 Renewal adopted a new procedure where the Government invited public opinion on its Green Paper to finalise a White Paper on Broadcasting based on their arguments. This time, however, the Government focused on accumulation and consideration of broader public opinion by consulting them prior to the issuance of a Green Paper. This fact indicates a public-participation type Charter Review is being carried out to the extent that there is no grandiloquence to use the term “national debate” for it.
On March 2 this year, or at the halfway point of the debate, the British Government, having summarized the discussion so far, issued the Green Paper as a draught for the final government policy on the Renewal. As seen in its title “A strong BBC, independent of government,” the Government showed its position to ensure that the BBC will remain as the cornerstone of public service broadcasting even in an age of digital broadband and as an organisation independent of the government. It laid out the following four significant policy plans in the Green Paper and kept invited public feedbacks until the end of May.
1. Granting of a new ten-year Royal Charter
2. Retention of the license fee
3. Sustention of the scale and scope of BBC services
4. System reform of governance and regulation of the BBC
The author reports the flow of discussions and concepts at the British Government before it reached the above four conclusions by following the process of the debates which has been being conducted with unparalleled elaboration, focusing on the most discussed issue: how the BBC should be governed, or how to secure corporate governance of the BBC's business operation. The author also briefly touches on a remaining issue for the future, “The future of public service broadcaster (PSB) beyond the BBC.”