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Lord Puttnam attacks BBC for “criminal act” of failing to take "idiot" Boris Johnson to task for contradictory EU message

The Labour Peer says the BBC and other broadcasters missed a golden chance to embarrass the politician over a 2006 programme in which he appeared to contradict his Leave campaign message by backing Turkey’s accession to the EU

Broadcasting grandee Lord Puttnam has taken British broadcasters to task for failing to highlight contradictory comments made by Tory Leave campaigner Boris Johnson in which he promoted Turkey’s future in Europe.

Delivering his report on the future of Public Service Broadcasting in London today, the Labour Peer said he had notified his own party’s leadership as well as BBC director general Lord Hall and Channel 4 about a segment in Johnson’s BBC documentary The Dream of Rome which supported Turkish accession.

He drew particular attention to the clip below, saying that it contradicted a central message of the Leave campaign that Turkish membership was likely and would be detrimental to British interests.

In his 2006 film, The Dream of Rome, Johnson strongly made the case for Turkey to be admitted to the EU and said he could not wait for the “great moment” when the two halves of the Roman Empire “are at last reunited in an expanded European Union”.

“I believe our generation has a historic chance not just to reunite the two halves of the Roman Empire, but to build a bridge between the Islamic and the Christian worlds,” he said in the documentary.

Puttnam sought to draw the BBC’s attention to the clip but says he was ignored, despite sending it to the office of director general Tony Hall.

“This clip was never used… despite the fact that Boris Johnson was warning us that 77 million Turks would invade our country,” Puttnam said today.

“It is inexplicable and unthinkable that that was not used to challenge this idiot. We are talking about a serial liar. And we are looking at the idea that he may be this country’s next Prime Minister. If this country is mad enough to take someone as bad as this and as opportunistic, and that’s being polite, then we will deserve everything we get.

“We will deserve the press we get, we will deserve the information systems we get and we will be entitled to be absolutely derided. As much as we deride Donald Trump we will have our own Berlusconi running Britain."

“The fact that the BBC chose not to run that clip in challenging Boris during the last few months is nearly a criminal act.”

Lord Puttnam is factually inaccurate in his claim that the clip was never used on the BBC, however. It was played to Johnson by Martha Kearney on the Radio 4’s World at One programme on June 22, to which the politician replied: “That's how I felt then.”

However it did not appear on BBC television.

When asked by RadioTimes.com whether or not his own Party’s leadership ignored the clip because its leader Jeremy Corbyn was ambivalent about the Remain campaign, Puttnam said: “You tell me… It’s one of the things that most concerns me.”

Puttnam added that he hadn’t even received a reply from Number Ten and suggested that the Government did not want to engage in a “Blue on Blue” attack on the man who could be the next Prime Minister.

His report, produced in association with Goldsmith's College, outlines a number of ways to safeguard public service broadcasting in the UK, including charging a levy on companies like Google and even ITV, to be ploughed into a fund for public service television.

It also says that a new funding mechanism should replace the licence fee as soon as it is "practical”, with the proposed options including a levy on Council Tax Bills.

Source: Radio Times 

Puttnam: ISPs and digital giants should fund public service content

Lord Puttnam’s Future of Public Service Television report has called for the creation of a public service content fund that is bankrolled by digital conglomerates and internet providers.

The proposal is that a 1% levy should be placed on UK revenues of digital intermediaries such as Google and Yahoo and internet service providers such as BT or EE.

That money would then be made available to the UK’s “brilliant cultural institutions” and bodies outside of the traditional broadcasting sector.

It could be accessed by museums and performing arts colleges, for example, which the report said are now producing video content “of public service character”.

They would be able to apply for a series of public service grants and partner with public service broadcasters and digital platforms such as the BBC or Netflix to take their content into mainstream television.

Puttnam said: “This should not be seen as a threat to our current television model, or as giving broadcasters an excuse to opt out of making programming in certain fields, but as way of enriching content for audiences and harnessing the creative ambitions of some of these brilliant cultural institutions.”

The funds would by distributed by a newly established independent public media trust, possibly overseen by Ofcom.

Written by Miranda Blazeby

SourceL Broadcast Now 

Puttnam: Don't privatise C4

Channel 4 should not be privatised in full or in part, says former deputy chair Lord Puttnam.

Lord Puttnam’s Future for Public Service Television Inquiry has called on the government not to sell off the broadcaster and to clarify its future “as soon as possible”.

“Recently, Channel 4 has been threatened with privatisation, in whole or in part, a proposal that would threaten its public service remit,” Puttnam wrote in the report.

Culture secretary John Whittingdale told a cross-party committee earlier this month that he was refusing to rule out either a partial or full sell of C4.

The fate of the broadcaster has been expected to be decided before parliament’s summer recess on 21 July, pending discussions with C4’s board. It’s not clear whether the UK’s decision to leave the EU and the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron will impact this timetable.

Chariots of Fire director Puttnam, who was deputy chair of C4 from 2006 to 2012, said the broadcaster has a “critical place” in the public service ecology.

He welcomed its support of the independent production sector and its range of diverse content.

However, he said that the broadcaster should arrest the decline in arts programming and commission more series for teenagers.

“C4 should significantly increase its provision for older children and young adults and restore some of the arts programming that has been in decline in recent years,” he added.

ITV & C5

Lord Puttnam also recommended that commercial broadcasters ITV and Channel 5 should remain part of the public service television ecology, but added that both should contribute more.

As he discussed at Sheffield Doc/Fest last month, Puttnam’s report stated that ITV should increase its current affairs output to 90 minutes a week. This would equate to 78 hours a year, which is an 81% increase on its current 43-hour minimum obligation.

ITV should also increase the amount on regional non-news programmes it airs from 15 minutes to 30 minutes per week, the reort said.

Meanwhile, Puttnam recommended that Viacom-owned Channel 5, which airs the Milkshake! block, should have its voluntary commitment to children’s programming embedded in its licence with specific commitments to UK-originated kids content.

Written by Peter White

Source: Broadcast Now 

Lord Puttnam backing for BBC 'Scottish Six' news programme

A report into the future of public service broadcasting in the UK has given backing to the idea of a BBC "Scottish Six" TV news programme.

The Future for Public Service Television Inquiry, chaired by Labour peer Lord David Puttnam, also called for more devolution in BBC budgets.

BBC Scotland announced a trial of an hour-long news programme in February, that could replace Reporting Scotland.

However, the corporation has yet to announce a final decision on the issue. 

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme, Lord Puttnam said the current provision for Scottish audiences fell short.

He said: "We looked carefully at it and we don't think the present system has fully taken on board the settlement that exists – that basically it's not reflective of the current constitutional settlement with Scotland.

"And it certainly won't be reflective of the settlement, if – as seems absolutely possible – Scotland increases its relationship with Europe or solidifies its relationship with Europe in a post-Brexit world."

'Cap in hand'

Lord Puttnam said BBC Scotland's news output should reflect the world to Scots "as seen from Scotland".

He added: "There's no question that the world as viewed from Edinburgh and Glasgow is a different world as viewed from London. Those editorial decisions ought to be located in Scotland because they affect Scotland."

On funding, Lord Puttnam said it was time for control of funding for Scottish programming to move to Scotland.

He said: "One thing I discovered as a movie producer, unless you control your own budget, you will never make your own programmes. 

"You cannot continue to go cap in hand from Scotland to London, or from Manchester to London for that matter, and hope that the budget controllers will give you the type of freedom and be able to make the type of programme that you want to make."

The report, commissioned in November 2015, also called for the licence fee to be replaced by a more "progressive option", including the possibility of a supplement to the council tax.

On Tuesday, BBC director general Tony Hall spoke to the Culture Media and Sport Committee at Westminster.

Speaking about a possible Scottish Six, he told the committee: "The current method of delivering news between six and seven is very popular, it's very popular with audiences in Scotland, the teams do a very good job.

"So whatever changes we make must be in the knowledge that actually it's got to be as good as – if not better than – what we are doing at the moment."

The so-called Scottish Six has been a long-running controversy within Scottish broadcasting, with previous proposals being ruled out by the BBC's then-director general Mark Thompson in 2006. 

The proposals are in response to criticism that the BBC's main Six O'Clock News programme, which is broadcast from London, often features stories – for example on education and health – that have no relevance to Scottish audiences.

Source: BBC Scotland 

Lord Puttnam: BBC board should be independent of government

Oscar-winning producer also calls for digital levy on ISPs, and said the licence fee should be abolished as soon as possible

An inquiry chaired by Oscar-winning film producer Lord Puttnam has said appointments to the new BBC board should be entirely independent of government, and called for a digital levy to fund new public service content outside of the corporation.

The Future for Public Service Television report, published on Wednesday, said the licence fee should be abolished “as soon as is practically possible” and replaced with a more progressive funding mechanism via council tax or general taxation.

It also called on broadcasters to do much more to reflect the diversity of the UK, backing Lenny Henry’s calls for ring fenced funding for black, Asian and minority ethnic productions, and said it was time for the BBC to commit to Scottish and Welsh opt-outs of its main BBC1 news bulletins.

The report said appointments to the BBC’s new unitary board, which will replace the BBC Trust, should be ‘entirely independent from government’ and overseen by a new independent appointments body.

The government’s white paper on the BBC in May proposed that as many as half of the new board of up to 14 people would be government appointments, raising fears that the BBC’s independence could be jeopardised.

BBC director general, Tony Hall, told MPs on Tuesday that he wanted no more than five of a 14-strong BBC board to be government appointed non-executives.

The new pot of money for public service content would be available to museums, arts organisations and community groups paid for by a levy on the “largest digital intermediaries and internet service providers”.

It has echoes of Ofcom’s proposed “public service publisher” of nearly a decade ago which never got off the ground.

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The report said Channel 4 should not be privatised in full or in part and called on the government to end the uncertainty over its future.

Elsewhere, it said broadcasters such as Sky and Virgin Media should pay millions of pounds in ‘retransmission fees’ for the privilege of carrying public service channels such as the BBC and ITV, a long-running industry bone of contention.

Addressing other industry tensions, it said measures should be taken to ensure the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 continue to be given prominent places on electronic programme guides and on-demand platforms.

The inquiry chaired by Puttnam, former deputy chairman of Channel 4 and an influential voice in broadcasting, began last November in the midst of discussions over the BBC’s future.

Source: The Guardian 

Broadcasting grandee Lord Puttnam backs option of replacing licence fee with Council Tax levy

The Chariots of Fire producer says the BBC charge must go as soon as possible and could be replaced by a fee linked to local authority tax

Lord Puttnam, the award winning producer and Labour Peer, today called for the eventual abolition of the BBC licence fee in a wide-ranging review of public service television.

The respected arts grandee's long-awaited report says that the government should seek to replace the licence fee as soon as is practically possible with a “more progressive funding mechanism”.

Among the proposed new models are a household fee or a supplement to Council Tax payments, an option which already has some supporters in Government. Another proposal put forward is “funding via general taxation with appropriate parliamentary safeguards”.

The BBC has secured the licence fee for the foreseeable future and under the terms of its new charter and financial settlement – which kicks in next year – the levy will rise in line with inflation having been frozen for the past ten years. 

However, the Government has indicated that the flat fee charge, currently £145.50, is likely to become impractical in time as people are increasingly turning to other platforms and devices such as laptops and phones to access TV content.

The public service nature of other content-providing services is noted in Puttnam’s report which says such content is “increasingly being delivered outside the formal public service system”. It cites the output offered by BSkyB and on-demand subscription services such as Netflix and Amazon.

The report adds that a broad range of cultural institutions – including museums, performing arts institutions and community organisations – are also producing video content of a strong public service character and could benefit from public money.

Puttnam’s report also proposes a levy on the revenues of “large digital intermediaries and internet service providers” including Google help fund public service content in the UK.

The report proposes that money is collected in a fund that would disseminate digital innovation grants to “cultural institutions and small organisations that are not already engaged in commercial operations”.

The grants would not be offered to digital content providers alone but also to “other forms of digital content that have demonstrable public service objectives and purposes.”

Describing himself as a “levyist” he cited the success of the National Lottery as a mechanism for providing funding for worthy causes from commercial activities.

Puttnam chaired the report which engaged in weeks of deliberation and has been published today under the heading A Future for Public Service Television: Content and Platforms in a Digital World. It was compiled in conjunction with Godsmiths College, University of London.

In his forward to the report, the Peer considers the debate over Britain’s future in the European Union and praises the way the issues have been handled by broadcasters.

He writes: “If the past few months have taught me anything, it is that our need for trusted sources of information, comprised of tolerant balanced opinion, based on the very best available evidence, has never been greater.

"For 40 years, a mixture of distortion and parody with regards to the operation of 
the European Union has been allowed to continue unchallenged, to the point at which any serious discussion of its strengths and weaknesses became impossible.

“The virulence of much of the referendum debate has at times been so shocking that there seems little prospect that, whichever way the vote goes, anything like ‘normal political service’ is likely to be resumed for a very long time.

"However, whilst at times frustrating, for viewers and listeners as much as the practitioners, the UK’s public service broadcasters have, over the final weeks of the campaign, behaved with very creditable restraint and responsibility.”

Source: Radio Times