Following IAMCR's September 7, 2015 public statement on the future of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the Chair of the British House of Lords Select Committee on Communications invited the association to submit written evidence to the committee's inquiry into the BBC Charter Renewal. IAMCR's submission, including an appendix with statements on public service broadcasting from Lebanon and the Arab World, Belgium, Canada, Italy and Mexico, was sent to the House of Lords committee on October 5, 2015.
Download IAMCR's submission - PDF
The submission addressed questions about the public purposes of the BBC, who should set the level of the licence fee, and whether the BBC's current scale and scope are appropriate to meet the current purposes of the BBC.
The submission was coordinated by IAMCR member Sylvia Harvey, Visiting Professor, School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, UK, and the appendices were drafted by Dima Dabbous, Assistant Professor, Lebanese American University, Lebanon; Daniël Biltereyst, Professor in Film and Media Studies, Ghent University, Belgium; Gaëtan Tremblay, Emeritus Professor, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada; Giuseppe Richeri, Professor Emeritus, University of Lugano, Italy; and Rodrigo Gomez, Professor in Communication Policies, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa, México.
IAMCR's submission - October 5 2015 - PDF
IAMCR Public Statement on the future of the British Broadcasting Corporation - September 7 2015
House of Lords Select Committee on Communications inquiry into the BBC Charter Renewal
Additional links to relevant information - added on 15 May 2016:
- A link to the House of Lords Report on the BBC published in February of this year (2016): http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldselect/ldcomuni/96/9602.htm
- A record of all written evidence received by the Lords Communications Committee for this inquiry: http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/lords-select/communications-committee/inquiries/parliament-2015/bbc-charter-renewal/bbc-charter-renewal-public-purposes-and-licence-fee-publications/
- A link to the IAMCR evidence at: http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/communications-committee/bbc-charter-renewal-public-purposes-and-licence-fee/written/22346.html
- Press Release from the UK's Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) on the Government's White Paper on the BBC, WP published on 12 May 2016: http://www.vlv.org.uk/vlv-news/whitepapernewsrelease2016.html