These national bodies should not hide from their critics

About a year ago, I wrote a plea on the occasion of the National Theatre's annual report. I suggested that in the interest of proper scrutiny and accountability, the publicly funded theatre should hold a press conference when it publishes its report and accounts. A few days after that article appeared, I met the chairman of the National Theatre board, Sir Christopher Hogg. He told me he agreed with me and was likely to have a proper briefing and press conference the following year.

Perhaps he forgot. Certainly, the National Theatre annual report arrived in the post unannounced and at a weekend. What a pity Sir Christopher's good intentions deserted him. But he is not alone. The chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Company also seemed to be otherwise engaged when the RSC annual report was slipped out, to paraphrase As You Like It, sans press conference, sans accountability, sans scrutiny, sans everything. But the AGM was open to everyone, answered the company when I challenged them about this. Fine, except one would need to know the AGM was coming up, and would need to have an invitation, which arts reporters did not have.

If this page could sing we could also pay an appropriate tribute to the Royal Opera House, which a few days ago also sent its annual report in the post, with no notice that it was coming and with no accompanying press release. And let us not forget the Arts Council, which did the same thing a couple of weeks ago.

So there we have it: some of the most important national arts organisations, funded by the taxpayer, do not think it worth their while to open themselves to proper scrutiny by arts journalists. The Tate, incidentally, is an honourable exception, holding a proper press conference, with its director and chairman taking questions. No doubt the others will reply that they did at least send out the reports.

But let's be realistic. Arts journalists aren't brilliant at reading balance sheets. They might need a little guidance; they might have a few questions. Is it too much for these (in most cases) faceless chairmen to appear just once a year to explain their reports? Is it too much for them to take questions about their publicly funded organisations? When the BBC failed, for once, to hold a press conference for its annual report earlier this year there were angry headlines and accusations of a lack of accountability. The corporation will not make that mistake again. But the biggest organisations in the arts manage to behave in a similarly high-handed manner – every year – and they get away with it.

Cynics might suspect that there were reasons for not facing the press in the case of the RSC, whose report revealed a whacking great deficit, or in the case of the Arts Council, whose report revealed that £1.3m had been spent on consultants. But the National Theatre and Royal Opera House had good news and healthy finances to report. Why were they anxious to avoid questioning? The arts should be able to boast of accountability, transparency and scrutiny. And if the arts organisations themselves can't see that, then the Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, or the arts minister, Tessa Blackstone, should give them a firm reminder.

¿ The success of the Queen musical We Will Rock You and the Madness musical Our House in offering top-price tickets at cinema prices under the Lister Experiment, to encourage a new, young audience to go to the theatre, has been enormously pleasing. I am happy to say that there are still chances remaining in the next couple of weeks of a cheap night out at the theatre as part of my campaign to attract young people.

The opportunity is to see two plays in the season of rarely performed Jacobean works being staged by the RSC. The decision by the producers, Thelma Holt and Bill Kenwright, to stage this season is daring. It is not just that most Londoners have not heard of the plays; few avid theatregoers have either. But all those who saw them in a sold-out season at the Swan theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon will agree that these are vivid and exciting productions of some intriguing plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries and successors. Cinema-priced tickets at £11.50 are being offered for good seats at selected performances of the RSC's new season at the Gielgud theatre in London's Shaftesbury Avenue. Edward III on Tuesday 17 December and Eastward Ho! on Monday 23 December are the two performances that can still be booked under the experiment. Ring the Gielgud theatre box office (0870 890 1105) and quote the Lister Experiment for the specially priced tickets.

¿ A peril of radio is that the line can be a little unclear when doing a telephone interview. During one such chat about my cheap tickets campaign, I mentioned that sometimes the only people one sees in a theatre are tourists. And why, the interviewer asked indignantly, shouldn't Tories go to the theatre?

d.lister@independent.co.uk