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A Conservative government could "rip up" the BBC's current Royal Charter to change the way the corporation is run, the shadow culture secretary said today.
Jeremy Hunt said the Tories would block Labour plans to force the BBC to share its licence fee revenue. But he added that the BBC Trust should be replaced. "We do think the structure...has failed," he told the FT. "We are looking into whether it would be appropriate to rip up the charter."
He said he wanted to ensure that the BBC's dominance did not stifle the commercial sector.
Reader views (4)
Sell of the BBC and lets see how they do in the real world. End the licence.
- Clif, London
Broadcasting standards have fallen steadily under the directorship of Mark Thompson, such that they are now at gutter level. He shows contempt for those who pay his salary, and seems to have no concept of what falls outwith standards of decency. He further insults those who pay his salary by describing some of the most odious presenters as "talented"
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK
In threatening to tear up the Beeb's Royal Charter the Tories have just supplied us all with a reason (and we needed one)for voting Labour.
- Alex, London
Mark Thompson as one of the BBC heads, has allowed a greedy, grasping culture to expand among its heads and top executives. Like a recently departed MP, they run production companies where they resell their services and programmes back to the BBC. Poorly developed programmes and mediocrity are the hallmark. Stifling real competition and continuing the drought of good and excellent programmes that the BBC was once renown for.
The current top incumbents who head the BBC will go down in history as the figures who destroyed it.
- Andrew, London
