NUJ calls on new BBC director general to rip up 'shady deal' with the Government on licence fee
With announcement of the new BBC director general expected this week, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called on Mark Thompson’s successor to tear up the agreement made with the Government that led to the agreement of the licence free freeze.
The Guardian has reported that Thompson’s successor, who will take over from him when he steps down following the Olympic Games in the coming months, will be named by the end of this week.
The NUJ claims that proposals following the deal, which it claims was conducted in secret between the BBC and the Government to freeze the licence fee until 2017, will see the loss of around 2,000 jobs and threaten quality at the corporation.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: "The Leveson Inquiry has put the spotlight on the shady deal, conducted in secret between the BBC management and government, which resulted in the corporation agreeing to a licence fee freeze until 2017, while taking on extra funding of £340 million. The new DG must take the brave step of bringing this deal into the open and look at a renegotiation. Jeremy Hunt, DCMS Secretary, who was at the centre of the deal, has been revealed as a "cheerleader" for the Murdochs.
"We now know the extent to which James Murdoch was able to go right to the heart of the Tory-led coalition in meetings and cosy dinner parties with George Osborne and David Cameron to reiterate his aggressive stance against the BBC, outlined in his MacTaggart lecture, when he launched a scathing attack on the corporation, accusing it of a 'land grab' in a beleaguered media market."
In an opinion article in the Sun on September 19, 2009, Jeremy Hunt, appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet when he said: "The BBC is the only broadcaster that gets a guaranteed income with the licence fee so it doesn't have to focus all its energies on chasing ratings – it can chase quality as well.
"Yet if you want to make a complaint, you can only go to another part of the BBC, the BBC Trust. We have pledged to replace this with a truly independent body. And we should not be having inflationary rises in the licence fee in a year when there's next to no inflation. If the BBC had any shame, they'd have waived this year's £68m increase… with 47 BBC executives earning more than the Prime Minister, we need common sense on salaries."