• Today on MD’s Journal (Scotland)…

    Site status: Comments are pre-moderated on this site.

    Site availability: No Restrictions, 03022010

    In some instances journals may be publicly restricted.

    Site Statistics: --'Restricted'-- [periodic publication only]

    As of Noon, 31 January 2010, this site has recorded over 381,433 independent public hits.

    - All statistics produced on this site are independently verifiable.

    Continued thanks to staff at both alphainventions.com and Wordpress.com, both US portals, who continue to promote the work displayed on this site around the world.

    ...Knowledge means the power to make the right choices.

    Welcome, Introduction & Blog Stats

    MD's Electronic Shapelink & Fitness Database

    Profile: 'Guardian Comments, Mark Dowe (BritishAirman)'

    Mark Dowe: 'Sky News Community Blog'

    Twitter: MarkDowe2010

    Scottish Government: 'Consultation Documents'

    Re-Live: Channel 4 News Video Coverage

    A close look at 'rare earth materials', their significance and China's hoarding of precious elements that seems likely to have serious consequences for the rest of the world. [pub. 07 Jan, 2010]

    2009 was the 'Year of Homecoming' in Scotland. Some are now asking whether the Homecoming event should be celebrated in Scotland every 5-years. [pub. Jan 3, 2010]

    The Saturday Essay for 19/12 considers possible US/UK involvement in Yemen, following an escalation in tensions along Yemen’s northern border with Saudi Arabia. Given the difficulties in Afghanistan, is a UK peacetime budget sufficient in meeting with current and future threats? Click on the Saturday Essay tab for commentary. [pub. 19/12]

  • (Weekly) Most Read…

    The most read/clicked journals over the last 7-days, to Friday, 05 February, 2010.

    1. 'On this Day'

    2. World Affairs: 'Is America failing Haiti?'

    3. (Philosophical) Theme for February: 'A strategy for success'

    4. Iraq Inquiry: 'Blair’s justifying stance'

    5. -INTENTIONALLY BLANK-

    -- 'Most Read' excludes works on religion, including Sunday Teaching & Lessons.

  • On the radar…

    1. Sunday Teaching & Lessons

    2. Saturday Essay

    3. Modern Sociological Studies & Methods

    4. MD Gym/Fitness Surgery

    EDITOR'S NOTE:

    The writer reserves the right to publish any e-mails received where those mailings relate to subject matters on this site.

    © Mark Dowe 2007-2009: all rights protected

  • Hot Press…

    China reacted angrily to America’s plan to sell $6 billion-worth of weapons to Taiwan. It suspended military contacts, threatened sanctions against American companies involved in the arms sales and said it would review co-operation on international issues. [06/02]

    As talks in Beijing between China and representatives of the Dalai Lama ended with little sign of progress, Chinese officials warned Barack Obama against proceeding with a planned meeting with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Mr Obama insisted that it would go ahead, probably later this month. [06/02]

    Three American soldiers were killed, along with three children and a Pakistani soldier, in a bomb attack outside a girls’ school in the north-west of Pakistan. The Americans were said to be counter-insurgency trainers working with Pakistan’s Frontier Corps. [06/02]

    As the relief effort following Haiti’s huge earthquake continued, members of a Baptist group from Idaho were arrested and accused of trying to smuggle 33 Haitian children out of the country. Haiti said the death toll now exceeded 200,000, the first estimate. [06/02]

    Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, won her battle to remove Martín Redrado as head of the Central Bank for opposing her plan to use some of the country’s dollar reserves to repay debt. His replacement is an economist said to be closer to the president. [06/02]

    The two candidates in Ukraine’s presidential election run-off, Yulia Tymoshenko and Viktor Yanukovich, traded insults as the country prepared to vote. Tension rose when the Ukrainian secret service announced that it had detained five Russians last month for spying. [06/02]

    Tony Blair testified at the Iraq war inquiry in Britain. The former prime minister gave a stout defence of his decision to send British troops into Iraq, said he would do it again, and asked what the situation would be like now if Saddam Hussein had been left in power to develop WMD. One of his former ministers said Mr Blair was being “ludicrous”. [06/02]

    The White House unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget for the next fiscal year, starting in October. Many of its highlights, such as a new tax on banks, had been previously trailed, but the document also outlined spending on jobs. NASA’s $100 billion plan to return men to the moon was scrapped. [06/02]

    Iraq’s electoral commission reversed a ban on more than 500 candidates who had been told they could not run in next month’s election because of past ties to Saddam Hussein’s Baath party. Prominent Sunni politicians, who had threatened to boycott the poll because they said the original decision discriminated against them, welcomed the move. Meanwhile, suicide-bombs in Baghdad and Karbala, one of Shia Islam’s holiest Iraqi towns, killed more than 60 Shia pilgrims. [06/02]

    An agreement on a truce between Yemen’s government and Shia rebels of the Houthi clan broke down over an extra condition that the Houthis stop attacking Saudi forces across Yemen’s border. Yemeni government forces later said they had killed 16 Houthi rebels, including several leaders, in their stronghold, Saada. [06/02]

    Israel’s secret service, Mossad, was widely suspected of the recent assassination in Dubai of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a military commander of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist move. Mr Mabhouh was said to have been close to Hamas’s political leader, Khaled Meshaal. [06/02]

    The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague won his appeal against a ruling that he could not charge Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, with genocide in Darfur. Mr Bashir was indicted in March 2009. A warrant for his arrest will now be reconsidered. Mr Bashir, with the backing of some African governments but not others, still insists he will not appear before the court. [06/02]

    Barack Obama gave his first state-of-the-union speech to Congress amid growing voter disquiet about his agenda. The president admitted he had not communicated the case for health-care reform very well, but said Democrats must govern and not “run for the hills” and away from his policies. After the stunning loss of a Senate seat in Massachusetts, senior Democratic leaders were reticent about revisiting a health bill any time soon. [29/01]

    Mr Obama said that job creation would now become his top priority. He also called for a three-year spending freeze on many domestic programmes, such as education and national parks. But defence, national security and entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare, were exempted. The Congressional Budget Office, a non-partisan agency, forecast that the budget deficit for this fiscal year would be $1.349 trillion, or 9.2% of GDP. [29/01]

    The Supreme Court’s shift, in a 5-4 vote, to allow companies and unions to spend freely in support of candidates in elections sent shock waves through the American political system. The decision, in United Citizens v Federal Election Commission, overturns decades of restrictions on corporations’ campaign spending. [29/01]

    Ali Hassan al-Majid, a cousin and confidant of Saddam Hussein often known as “Chemical Ali”, was hanged in Baghdad after an Iraqi special tribunal found him guilty of ordering poison-gas attacks against Kurds in 1988, in particular in Halabja, where some 5,600 people, mostly civilians, were killed in a day. [29/01]

    Describing the burqa as “a challenge to our republic”, a parliamentary committee in France called for the Muslim face-covering veil to be banned in hospitals, schools and on public transport. The committee fell short of recommending a ban in all public spaces, a measure some of its members had sought. [29/01]

    Two weeks after an earthquake hit Haiti, followed by massive aftershocks and killing up to 300,000 people, international help began to reach substantial numbers of survivors. UN peacekeepers fired tear-gas at a crowd who mobbed aid workers distributing food supplies. [29/01]

    As foreign ministers from some 70 countries gathered in London for a conference on Afghanistan’s future, the UN removed five former Taliban officials from a blacklist of people with supposed links to al-Qaeda. The conference was expected to hear commitments to provide money for reintegrating former Taliban fighters and to announce an expansion of Afghan security forces. [29/01]

    Representatives of the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, travelled to Beijing for the first talks with the Chinese government for 15 months. [29/01]

    North and South Korea exchanged gunfire near their disputed maritime border. The North said its firing was part of a military exercise, which the South called “provocative”. The next day the North fired more rounds of artillery. [29/01]

    Beset by difficulties of co-ordination and transport, a massive relief operation to help victims of Haiti’s earthquake moved with excruciating slowness. A week after the quake, only 200,000 people had received food aid; perhaps 1m need it. But medical care was improving, and the United Nations, American troops and aid agencies were working to set up a supply chain. Some 200,000 people are feared to have been killed in the disaster. [22/01]

    Viktor Yushchenko, the winner of Ukraine’s “orange” revolution five years ago, was resoundingly voted out in the first round of the Ukrainian presidential election. A second round will be held on February 7th between Viktor Yanukovich, the front-runner, and Yulia Tymoshenko, the current prime minister. [22/01]

    Tens of thousands of people were feared to have died after an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 devastated Haiti. Schools, hospitals and homes in Port-au-Prince collapsed, as did the parliament building and the headquarters of the United Nations mission. The Red Cross said a third of Haiti’s 9m people would probably need emergency help. [15/01]

    Google announced that it may withdraw from China after what it called a “sophisticated and targeted” cyber-attack originating from the country. The primary goal of the attack, it said, was to gain access to the e-mail accounts of Chinese human-rights activists. A spokesman for Baidu, its main Chinese competitor, which dominates the internet-search market in China, said Google’s announcement was hypocritical, and its decision was financially motivated. [15/01]

    China became the second country after America successfully to test technology to intercept a missile in space. The test was seen as a response to America’s decision to sell advanced missile-defence systems to Taiwan. [15/01]

    A Dutch committee of inquiry concluded that the Iraq war, which the government supported, was illegal in international law. Separately, the Iraq inquiry in Britain questioned Alastair Campbell, former press secretary to Tony Blair, who strongly defended the decision to go to war and the evidence that supported it. [15/01]

    America said it was pondering new sanctions to press Iran to curb its nuclear programme, in particular by targeting the powerful Revolutionary Guard. But China said it was still too soon to take such measures. [08/01]

    The Basel committee on banking supervision, which sets capital standards for banks around the world, published a consultation document on December 17th that was more stringent than many bankers had expected. Among other things, the committee is calling for a shake-up in the way banks’ capital is measured. [02/01/2010]

  • RSS Politics

  • Scotland Snippet …

    Edinburgh Courant:

    – Newspaper first published 14 February 1705. It was both edited and printed by James Watson (d. 1722), who had produced the Edinburgh Gazette 5 years earlier. [03/09]

    Cutty Sark: Clipper ship built at Dumbarton in 1869, used initially for the tea trade with China and then for the Australian wool trade. Her name is that of the young witch in Robert Burns’ poem Tam O’Shanter. Later, the ship had been restored and placed in dry dock at Greenwich, and since 1957 has been open to the public. [23/08]

    Beinn Ghlas Mountain, a Munro (1103m/3619ft) on the shoulder of Ben Lawers, near Loch Tay. The Beinn Ghlas wind farm was opened in 1999. [30/07]

    Black Watch – Gaelic: Am Freiceadean Dubh*

    Raised as 6 independent companies of infantry in 1725 to maintain order in the Highlands after the Jacobite rising of 1715. In 1739 these were combined into the 43rd Regiment of Foot, renumbered 42nd in 1751.

    Its dark tartan and original role gave it its name; its motto is ‘Wha daur meddle wi’ me’. It has served in most British campaigns and is now known as the Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment). It recruits from east central Scotland.

    * Dowe = Black Dubh [21/07]

    Turnberry – Golfing and beach resort in Ayrshire, 9km north of Girvan, and the home to this year’s Open Golf Championship.

    The 5-star Turnberry Hotel, built from 1904 for the Glasgow and South Western Railway by James Miller, is often reckoned to be the best in Scotland.

    Turnberry now incorporates the Colin Montgomery Golf Academy.

    Turnberry Castle, fragments of which remain, is alleged to be the birthplace of Robert I, and was a centre for his campaigns. Turnberry lighthouse is built over it. [17/07]

  • Promise of Morning…

    The Windowsill of Heaven:

    Every morning lean your arms awhile upon the windowsill of heaven and gaze upon the Lord.

    Then, with the vision in your heart, turn strong to meet your day.

  • Intelligence Briefing…

    1. Intelligence from Miltary Drones:

    Briefing: 'Military Drones'

    2. Strategy for fighting the Taliban:

    Briefing: ‘A strategy against the Taliban’

    3. Could a tsunami really hit Britain; consider the evidence:

    Could a tsunami happen in Britain?

    4. NATO: How is it meant to move forward:

    NATO: 'A way forward?'

    5. Any other ways for governments to act other than taking banks over?

    Nationalisation isn’t the only option

    6. UK Anti-Terrorism: 'Contest Two Strategy'

    Home Office & Contest Two

    7. Resistance among local communities increases against the Taliban in Afghanistan.

    Afghanistan: 'Taleban objectives?'

    8. Iran and its covert nuclear projects.

    Intelligence Briefing: 'Iranian politics and its covert nuclear projects'

  • Noticeboard …

    modus operandi:

    Servo pia quod vacuus duco sumptus

    (Serve honestly and without counting the cost)

    "Software and technology in the right hands"

    On Journalism J.M. Barrie (1860-1937) said:

    ... "The printing-press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, one sometimes forgets which.

    Watch or listen to BBC programmes within the last 7-days:

    BBC i-Player

    "The pen is mightier than the sword"

    ... is a metonymic adage coined by Edward Bulwer-Lytton in 1839 for his play 'Richelieu; Or the Conspiracy'.

    The play was about Cardinal Richelieu, French clergyman, noble, and statesman.

  • RSS Home News

  • RSS The Economist: Briefings

    • America and China: By fits and starts February 4, 2010
      As China and America square off in the latest round of recriminations, how bad are relations really?IT IS probably the most important relationship of today’s world, and even more of tomorrow’s. If the United States and China cannot co-operate, what hope of stemming climate change and the spread of nuclear weapons, or returning the global economy […]
    • Greece's sovereign-debt crunch: A very European crisis February 4, 2010
      The sorry state of Greece’s public finances is a test not only for the country’s policymakers but also for Europe’sSOME would say that tragedy was inevitable from the moment, nine years ago last month, when Greece was admitted to the euro zone. Others would claim that woe was sure to befall such a disparate currency union sooner or later: i […]
    • Sri Lanka's election: Victory for the Tiger-slayer January 28, 2010
      What the president’s re-election means for his sorely divided countryHAD Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka’s war-winning leader, lost his island-state’s presidential election on January 26th, it would have been described as a Churchillian defeat. But that would have underdone the drama. Imagine Britain’s wartime prime minister falling out […]
    • Reforming banking: Base camp Basel January 21, 2010
      Regulators are trying to make banks better equipped against catastropheTHE world’s banking system is both mindbogglingly complex and too vital to fail. After only a year’s deliberation, the finest minds in governments, regulatory bodies and central banks have decided how to improve the way it is supervised. Their answer, it appears, is thicker in […]
    • Correction: China's economy January 21, 2010
      In an article on China’s economy (“Not just another fake”, January 16th), we quoted a UBS report: “China’s steel capacity of almost 0.5kg per person is slightly lower than America’s output in 1920 (0.6kg) and far below Japan’s peak of 1.1kg in 1973.” All those figures should be tonnes, not kilograms. This has b […]
    • The growth of the state: Leviathan stirs again January 21, 2010
      The return of big government means that policymakers must grapple again with some basic questions. They are now even harder to answerFIFTEEN years ago it seemed that the great debate about the proper size and role of the state had been resolved. In Britain and America alike, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton pronounced the last rites of “the era of big gover […]
    • China's economy: Not just another fake January 14, 2010
      The similarities between China today and Japan in the 1980s may look ominous. But China’s boom is unlikely to give way to prolonged slumpCorrection to this articleCHINA rebounded more swiftly from the global downturn than any other big economy, thanks largely to its enormous monetary and fiscal stimulus. In the year to the fourth quarter of 2009, its r […]
    • Barack Obama's first year: Reality bites January 14, 2010
      Governing is harder than campaigning. But America’s 44th president has made an adequate startFOR some, the magic is undimmed. Carl Baloney is extravagantly happy that Barack Obama is his president. He is old enough to remember segregation: back in the 1960s, his local university turned him away because he was black, he says. He is also old enough to ha […]
    • Correction: Emerging markets January 14, 2010
      In our briefing on emerging markets and recession (January 2nd), we wrongly stated that "during 2009 the largest developing country stockmarkets recouped all the losses they had suffered during 2008." In fact, only Brazil did. In dollar terms, Indonesia, Mexico and Taiwan recouped 90-98% of their losses up till December 31st. China, India and South […]
    • Correction: Women in the workforce January 7, 2010
      In "Women in the workforce" (January 2nd) we said that a study of female MBAs from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business by Marianne Bertrand and others had found that about half of those with children remained in the labour force ten years after graduating. In fact 77% stayed in the labour force ten to 16 years after graduatin […]

  • RSS Alphainventions.com RSS Feed

  • RSS Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

  • RSS The Independent – Commentators RSS Feed

    • Terence Blacker: Upper-class twits whose time has gone February 10, 2010
      There is no fool quite like an English fool. In American films, the fool, usually played by Ben Stiller or Steve Martin, is essentially an ordinary person having a bad day. The French fool, from M Hulot onwards, has a disconcerting tug of social satire to him. Only the English fool, surely, is defined not only by his stupidity but by his elevated social clas […]
    • Gordon Brown: An ageing population demands another revolution in healthcare February 10, 2010
      Too often the change to an older society is seen by our sometimes youth-focused culture as a threat or a burden. As a country we need to recognise that it has the potential to be a far more positive change affecting not just our public services but also the shape and character of our society. For our families, I believe it can be a change for the better.
    • Andrew Grice: Brown's insurance against defeat February 10, 2010
      Gordon Brown's deathbed conversion to electoral reform may look like pure opportunism and widening the goalposts for his team just as the match kicks off. But in a few months, it might just be a clever insurance policy that pays a handsome reward.
    • Robert Fisk: Gaza's defiant tunnellers head deeper underground February 10, 2010
      They are the real resistance. They are the lung through which Gaza breathes. True, missiles must pass along their subterranean tracks, Qassam rockets, too, Kalashnikov ammunition, explosives. But by far the greatest burden of the tunnellers of Gaza is the very life-blood of this besieged little pseudo-Islamic statelet: fresh meat, oranges, chocolate, shirts, […]
    • Michael Whisson: Imprisoned by the party, his carers and protocol: so what does he think about the state of his nation? February 10, 2010
      Images from the years between Mandela's release from jail and the end of his presidency flash through the mind. Walking out of jail hand-in-hand with Winnie; greeting the masses in Cape Town; departing from his text to give a rousing endorsement to all who shared his vision of a new South Africa, united, reconciled, progressive and egalitarian; the smil […]
    • The Sketch: Plaid Cymru's fearsome threesome pack quite a punch February 10, 2010
      What a relief to see Elfyn Llwyd in the House yesterday, still alive and asking questions. He's always more interesting than he looks. Tiny Plaid Cymru are a great parliamentary asset. Blair and Mittal's £2m, that was them. They kicked off Cash for Honours. The Blair Impeachment project, they did that too. Llwyd and Adam Price (they are two-thirds […]
    • Mark Steel: They believed what suited them, and ignored what didn't February 10, 2010
      If you want to understand the details of how we went to war in Iraq, it is probably best not to watch a single moment of the Chilcot inquiry. Because the most glaring points of the big picture seem to get lost, amidst genteel discussions about whose note was at which meeting using which font at what angle.
    • Carola Long: Brangelina and a 21st-century myth February 10, 2010
      In the minds of many gossip hounds, the next chapter of the Brangelina drama had already been written, and it was the finale. What a surprise then when the key players actually voiced their own parts and announced that they were beginning legal action against a newspaper which claimed they were planning to split. Their lawyer said the paper made "false […]
    • Hamish McRae: Rescue Greece and we help ourselves February 10, 2010
      What has been happening to the euro over the past few days is a stark warning to governments all over the world. No, the Eurozone will not break up in the coming months, though it may well do so at some later date. The problems that the Eurozone's weaker members – especially Greece but also Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy – have exposed is that gover […]
    • Peter Popham: Two people of no monetary value – and so aren't worth saving February 10, 2010
      It is very unlucky for Paul and Rachel Chandler that they are human beings. If they were barrels of crude or frozen carcasses of Australian beef, their ordeal at the hands of the Somali pirates who captured them last October would have been brought briskly to an end by the arrival of negotiators acting for the relevant insurance companies, the handing over o […]

  • RSS Government

  • RSS World news, breaking world news, latest world news from the US, Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa

  • RSS Top stories from Times Online

  • RSS Opinion

  • Tags

  • RSS Society

  • RSS History

  • Category Cloud

  • RSS Opinion

  • Meta

BBC: ‘A need to accept change’…

Posted on July 17, 2009 by markdowe

CHANGING BROADCASTING LANDSCAPE

From the desk of MD

From the desk of MD

POLITICIANS, often, find it easy to attack the BBC. Unlike the print media, where Editors of national newspapers can call for the election of another party, the BBC is stifled in its tracks from being party political. That probably has as much to do with how the BBC is governed by its Royal Charter and, for some, the reason as to why it has had a stranglehold over the licence fee. Despite monopolies in many industries now being a thing of the past, the BBC is still able to stave-off competing claims for parts of the licence fee from other broadcasters who have an equal claim for parts of it. “Top slicing” is an argument that has been raging for some years now. Channel-4, for instance, provides excellent public service broadcasting through its news coverage, yet is still being denied access to funds in meeting with the digital challenges of the future.  

As a body that is continually dependant on state subsidy, the corporation is in no position to bite the hand that feeds it. At the same time, though, politicians of all political persuasions find the BBC a useful scapegoat. When the Blair government, for example, became deeply unpopular over its handling of the invasion of Iraq, it was actually the BBC’s chairman and chief executive who ended up resigning, following the inquiry into the suicide of Dr. David Kelly, a government scientist.

Over the decades, the corporation has had to put up with a lot of political pressure but – usually – it has refused to succumb. As a result, we could easily conclude that British public service broadcasting has added immeasurably to our democracy and to our cultural values.

However, there are times when the BBC comes under criticism for perfectly good and legitimate reasons. Just this week, the new Culture and Media Secretary, Ben Bradshaw, suggested that the BBC’s director-general, Mark Thompson, and the chairman of the BBC Trust, Michael Lyons, were being “wrong headed” in their total opposition to letting other media organisations share in the licence fee. Rightfully, the government – after some considerable public input – has agreed to launch a consultation into plans to top-slice 3 percent of the £3.5-billion annual licence fee to fund regional news and children’s programmes made by other broadcasters. This should be welcome news for everyone who wishes to see fair and equitable allocation of funds that might just offer enhanced quality of programming. Michael Lyons attempted to rebut Mr. Bradshaw for engaging in so-called “personal criticism”.

ISSUES

There are two issues here. Firstly, should the BBC continue to be allowed in monopolising the entire licence fee in an age and era of multiple electronic broadcasting platforms? As channels fragment, and commercial broadcasters chase viewers and advertisers, the BBC has been able to use its vast subsidy to build dominant market shares, which the private sector has no way of challenging. Thus, the BBC’s website operation dwarfs all competitors while local and regional newspapers are dying for want of the advertising that has migrated to the internet. Against this background, there has to be strong case for top-slicing to support other forms of public service broadcasting. Hence the proposal which is gaining momentum to fund alternative local news broadcasts or to subsidise independent producers, especially in Scotland.

The second issue is the head-in-the-sand attitude of the BBC’s senior executives towards change. The explosion of digital broadcasting and “citizen journalism” makes it hard to imagine the public will countenance the continuation – and certainly the growth – of the licence fee. As a result, it seems quite likely that neither Labour nor the Tories will support the current BBC funding arrangements. But instead of leading the debate on reforming public sector broadcasting, Mark Thompson and Michael Lyons are content to defend their empire, oblivious of the anger that has grown up over profligate BBC salaries and bonuses.

 

WHAT IS NEEDED NOW – in the BBC and among politicians – is an open period of general consultation on the future. The BBC has to accept that change is coming; it is time the BBC accepted that and be part of the government’s consultation in how it should adapt for the future.

 

© Mark Dowe 2009: all rights protected

mark.dowe@googlemail.com

Filed under: Broadcasting, Digital Age, Media, SNP, Scotland, Westminster, scottish government | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

« »

2 Responses

  1. nickreynoldsatwork, on July 17th, 2009 at 8:47 pm Said:

    I couldn’t disagree with you more Mark.

    1. Top slicing is an idea which has been floated many times over the past twenty years and each time it has been looked at it has been rejected. You seem to have missed OFCOM’s two year review of Public Service Broadcast. Even OFCOM ruled out top slicing in that review. See this blog post:

    http://nickreynoldsatwork.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/reasons-not-to-top-slice-4/

    2. The BBC management has not had its head in the sand over the current situation in the media. Only six months ago the BBC brought forward a number of partnership proposals to try and bolster the rest of the industry.

    The Minister also seems to have prejudged the result of his own consultation before it has finished. He seems to be saying “I want top-slicing and if you disagree with me that means you’re a poor leader”.

    NB I work for the BBC but these are my personal views

  2. posrat7, on July 17th, 2009 at 11:11 pm Said:

    [edited response]

    BBC journalists do not decide, and when they decided, would have the story second start but finally, thank you and regards

Leave a Reply