BBC controversies: Encyclopedia II - BBC controversies - Brief history

BBC controversies - Brief history

One of the first controversial issues in which the BBC became involved was over the question of funding and the control of programming. In the United States radio broadcasting had already developed to the point that there were "listeners-in" within the British Isles, prior to any broadcasting service being licensed by the British government (British General Post Office - GPO) within the British Isles.

As a result of these technical and social developments, in 1922 the British government (GPO) forced all of the British electrical companies and the American subsidiaries doing business in Britain, into a single cartel and monopoly which it called the British Broadcasting Company Ltd. This arrangement lasted until January 1927 when the present British Broadcasting Corporation was given its first Royal Charter to act as a cultural and information entity controlled by the Crown.

BBC controversies - 1930s: Commercial radio controversy

Because the BBC had become both a monopoly and a non-commercial entity, it soon faced controversial competition by British subjects (citizens) who were operating leased transmitters on the continent of Europe before World War II, to blast commercial radio programmes into the British Isles. John Reith who had been given powers to dictate the cultural output of the BBC retaliated by leading the opposition to these commercial stations. Controversy spilled over into the press when the British government attempted to censor the printing of their programme information. The pressure was created by the success of these stations. By 1938 on Sundays, it was reported that 80% of the British audience was tuning in to commercial radio, rather than the non-commercial BBC.

BBC controversies - 1940s: American Armed Forces controversy

During World War II the introduction of American Armed Forces Radio programming on to the airwaves within the British Isles caused controversy by the tone and style of their broadcasts. They were very popular and continued to supply the kind of entertainment once provided by the pre-war commercial stations. The BBC was forced to absorb some of this cultural programming against the wishes of its original Director General who had left the employment of the BBC.

BBC controversies - 1950s: Independent Television controversy

In the 1950s Sir Winston Churchill retaliated against the BBC because of his treatment at the hands of Sir John Reith who had banned him from the BBC airwaves prior to WWII. Lord Moran (Sir Charles Watson), recorded that Churchill denounced the BBC as a communist operation which resulted in Churchill leading the campaign to introduce commercial television into England. (See reference 3 below.) Details of this well documented campaign are recorded in the book Pressure Group, by author H. H. Wilson, published by Rutgers University Press in 1961. (See reference 1 below.)

BBC controversies - 1960s: Offshore radio controversy

In the 1960s BBC Radio once more began to lose its audience to commercial radio, just as it had prior to World War II. This time the cause of the competition were offshore pirate radio stations, with some of the biggest being financed by money and style originating from Texas. The British government reacted by censoring the stations by passing the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act, 1967, which made it illegal for British citizens to work on the pirate ships, or to advertise on them. The BBC then hired the out of work commercial staff and adopted the American jingles for themselves.

BBC controversies - 1970: Jamming controversy

In the 1970s offshore pirate radio reappeared on a well financed offshore station only to be jammed by British government using high-powered military transmitters with the help of the BBC. The station effected a change during a General Election and the winning political party continued the jamming policy of its predecessor in power.

BBC controversies - 1984: Maggie's Militant Tendency controversy

The BBC programme Panorama on 30th January 1984 broadcast Maggie's Militant Tendency which claimed that some Conservative MPs had links to far-right organisations both in Britain and on the Continent. Two of the MPs named, Neil Hamilton and Gerald Howarth, sued the BBC because they thought the allegations were untrue. In 1986 the BBC offered an out-of-court settlement, which was accepted, and the damages amounted to £1 million.

BBC controversies - 1986: Libyan raid controversy

The Conservative Party Chairman Norman Tebbit, with the help of an academic lawyer, assembled a dossier of the BBC's coverage of the American bombing raid on Libya in which he claimed that the reporting was heavily biased against the Americans. The BBC rejected these findings, however.

BBC controversies - 1986: Censorship controversy

In 1986 BBC journalists went on strike to protest police raids to silence a series of BBC broadcasts. The police searched both the BBC studios in Glasgow, Scotland and the London home of Duncan Campbell, an investigative journalist.

Controversy began when on on June 12, 1985, Graeme McDonald as Controller of BBC-2 TV, was offered a series of documentaries by the BBC studios in Scotland in conjunction with an offer to them by Duncan Campbell whose work had previously appeared in the New Statesman magazine. The programmes were six half-hour films by Duncan Campbell (researched and presented by Campbell and produced according to BBC standards), which illuminated hidden truths of major public concern. The six programmes were:

• One: The Secret Constitution about a small, secret Cabinet committee that was in reality the Establishment that ruled the United Kingdom.
• Two: In Time of Crisis about secret preparations for war that began in 1982 within every NATO country. This programme revealed what Britain would do.
• Three: A Gap In Our Defences about bungling defence manufacturers and incompetent military planners who have botched every new radar system that Britain has installed since World War II.
• Four: We're All Data Now about the Data Protection Act.
• Five: Still in production about the Association of Chief Police Officers and how Government policy and actions are determined in the fields of law and order.
• Six: Still in production about communications with particular reference to satellites.

Work began on the series. In April 1986 Alan Protheroe, acting on behalf of BBC Director General Alasdair Milne was asked for permission to bug a private detective who said he could access a Criminal Records Office computer. Permission was granted and filming took place. The police were informed and the man was subsequently charged under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act.

The sixth programme would have revealed details of a top secret spy satellite and Alisdair Milne had already decided to cut it from the line-up when the Observer newspaper broke the story on January 18, 1987 with the headline: "BBC GAG on £500M DEFENCE SECRET". Combined with this story was a report that the Home Office intended to restrict the broadcast receiver licence fee, the implication being that the Government had decided to censor BBC investigative journalism.

Soon afterwards, a series of programmes on BBC Radio Four called My Country Right or Wrong was banned by the Government because it might have revealed sensitive secrets. The series was censored only a few hours before it was due to start because it dealt with similar issues to the television series concerning the British "secret state". However, it was eventually broadcast uncut, after the Government decided that it did not breach any laws or interfere with national security.

BBC controversies - 1987: Sacked BBC Director General controversy

On January 29, 1987 Alasdair Milne was sacked by the newly appointed Chairman of the BBC Board of Governors, Marmaduke Hussey. He was replaced by an accountant, Michael Checkland. Milne later wrote his account of this affair in The memoirs of a British broadcaster. (See reference 2 below.)

BBC controversies - 2003: Iraq war controversy

In May 2003, the defence correspondent of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme programme, Andrew Gilligan, quoted a government official who stated that the British Government had "sexed up" a dossier concerning weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, against the wishes of the Intelligence services. A newspaper report claimed that Alastair Campbell (the Prime Minister's Director of Communications and Strategy), was responsible. The British Government strongly denied the claims and this prompted an investigation by Parliament.

A Ministry of Defence scientist, Dr David Kelly, was named as the alleged source of the news item in another leaked news briefing. The subsequent suicide of Dr Kelly resulted in an escalation of the conflict between the government and the BBC, during which both sides received severe criticism for their roles in the matter.

The publication in January 2004 of the Hutton Report into Dr Kelly's death was extremely critical of Andrew Gilligan, and of the Corporation's management processes and standards of journalism. In the aftermath, both the Chairman of the BBC Gavyn Davies and the Director-General Greg Dyke resigned, followed by Gilligan himself. Lord Hutton was accused of failing to take account of the imperfections inherent in journalism, while giving the Government the benefit of the doubt over its own conduct. (See Hutton Report for details.)

A second inquiry by Lord Butler of Brockwell did review the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction and the production of the dossier. Amongst other things, the Butler Report concluded that:

... the fact that the reference [to the 45 minute claim] in the classified assessment was repeated in the dossier later led to suspicions that it had been included because of its eye-catching character.

Andrew Gilligan claims that the Butler Report vindicated his original story that the dossier had been "sexed up". Lord Hutton himself is said to be surprised at what he apparently views as an over-reaction to and misinterpretation of his criticisms of the BBC. (See Butler Report for details.)

In October 2004, the British government finally withdrew the "45 minutes" claim, which was central to the Hutton Inquiry and their claims about the war's legitimacy. Interpretations of these two reports has been mixed by both postitive and negative comments.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Brief history", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki