A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

Foreword by
Lord Puttnam
Public service broadcasting is a noble 20th
century concept. Sitting down to write this
preface just a few days before the most
significant British political event of my
lifetime, with no idea of what the result might
be, there is every temptation to escape into
neutral generalities.
That would be a mistake.
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.
If only the same could be said of much of
our national popular press. Our democracy
suffers a distorting effect in the form of
mendacious axe-grinding on the part of most
of the tabloid newspapers. In his brilliant
new book, Enough Said, the former director
general of the BBC Mark Thompson writes
that:
“Intolerance and illiberalism are on the rise
almost everywhere. Lies go unchecked. At
home, boundaries – of political responsibility,
mutual respect, basic civility – which seemed
secure a mere decade ago, are broken by
the week.” 1
Our Inquiry set out to discover if the concept
of public service broadcasting could survive
in the hyper-commercial, market dominated
media environment of the 21st century.
In the pages that follow I believe that we have
made that case that, not only do the public
believe it should survive, but that our evolved
PSB ecology functions as the most reliable
bulwark available to truly plural and informed
democracy in its battle against market
totalitarianism.
The successful democracies of the 21st
century are likely to be those in which the
provision of news and information is rapid,
accurate and trusted. ‘Rapidity’ is now a
given, ‘accuracy’ remains a challenge, but
‘trust’ is proving increasingly elusive.
It is a commonplace to believe that trust lies
at the heart of a sustainable democracy, yet
as Mark Thompson suggests, it is evaporating
on a daily basis and, once shredded, could
prove all but impossible to regain.
1
Mark Thompson, Enough Said: What’s gone wrong with the language of politics? London: Bodley Head, 2016.
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