Arts Council chairman says BBC is 'great asset’ but doesn’t ‘reflect the nation well enough’
The Arts Council chairman Sir Peter Bazalgette has leapt to the defence of the BBC calling it one of the nation’s greatest contributions to the world while chastising it for a failure to fully diversify its staff to reflect the population.
Speaking to the House of Lords communications committee Bazalgette said, according to the Guardian: “After the English language and Shakespeare it is the greatest asset this country has around the world,” adding “it doesn’t reflect the nation well enough and it shouldn’t take comfort from the fact it’s not alone”.
An anecdote marking, in his opinion, the lack of diversity at the company was a statement claiming that all the researchers at the Today programme were called “Piers or Jemima”. He said not enough is being done to recruit to reflect the corporation’s audience.
Bazalgette also warned that the BBC was of the utmost importance to the UK’s creative industries (which represent around five percent of the national economy).
Partnerships with UK creative were heralded as a way forward for the corporation to help tackle impending funding cuts and licence fee payment gaps.