16 January 2004
The BBC's regulator, its own board of governors, should be fully independent of the corporation and granted wider powers to control the public body, a leading think-tank has claimed.
A study by the centre-Left Institute for Public Policy Research, published on January 13, also suggests that the corporation should be funded in future by a hypothecated tax raised directly by the Inland Revenue.
From public service broadcasting to public service communications claims: 'Clearly, there is a need to make the BBC governors more independent.' It also calls for governors to be given greater powers to hold the BBC to account.
Publication of the study follows a number of high-profile rows between the government, the corporation and its governors and is likely to elicit ministerial support in the wake of the corporation's part in the Iraq dossier furore.
However, the IPPR argues that the BBC should not be regulated by Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog. Study co-editor Jamie Cowling said: 'There should be more than one content regulator, as a single [body]… could easily be subject to external pressure resulting in a chilling effect on the diversity of opinion in broadcast news and information.'
Cowling's team also suggest an overhaul of the way in which the BBC is financed, beginning with the extension of licence concessions to incapacity benefit claimants.
PFjan2004
