BBC chief hits out at 'political interference'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has hit back at the Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw's calls to scrap the BBC Trust, the corporation's governing body, describing it as "frankly puzzling" political interference.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society's annual convention in Cambridge, Mr Thompson attacked the speech delivered earlier this week, highlighting that the Trust was assembled by the same Labour government that Mr Thompson now serves, and that most of the BBC's new services such as BBC iPlayer "were approved by the Government of which Ben is a member".
Hitting back at Mr Bradshaw's questioning of the Trust as both "cheerleader" and regulator, Mr Thompson said: "The people Ben should ask this question of is those colleagues of his in the present Cabinet who invented the BBC Trust."
Mr Thompson also ridiculed James Murdoch's suggestion, made in his MacTaggart address last month, that the BBC was authoritarian. "In James's universe the Hutton crisis could never have happened – no scandal, no crisis, no inquiry, no resignations," he said. "Indeed, in public you'd never be able to slip a cigarette paper between the BBC and the Secretary of State. Yeah right."
Separately, Eric Schmidt, Google's chairman and chief executive, told the conference that calls to charge for journalism on the internet were unlikely to work for news generally.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments