Immediately after the outbreak of the pandemic, the Culture Select Committee launched an inquiry into the funding, regulation and remit of public service broadcasting. Given recent attacks on the BBC in particular by senior members of the government, including the prime minister, MRC believes it is vital both to defend the principle of public media but also to emphasise, once again, the need for deep-rooted reform and democratisation if actual PSBs are to meaningfully serve the public interest. We conclude our submission by arguing that:

Public service content should be freely available to, and should equally serve, all citizens. This means adapting the principles of public service broadcasting for the digital age and ensuring that existing PSBs are adequately funded to meet this challenge. It will also require the creation of new public media organisations to work in partnership with the ‘legacy’ organisations as part of a new public digital media ecology. Public media content needs to be delivered in the future through modern, democratised digital public platforms and networks operating autonomously of government and the market. 

You can read the full submission here.