Maria Miller dismisses attacks on BBC by fellow Conservatives Maria Miller, the media secretary, has dismissed attacks on the BBC by two of her Tory cabinet colleagues, saying complaints about the broadcasters licence fee and effect on local newspapers are a distraction. In an interview with the House magazine, Miller said the BBC needed to get its house in order following a series of scandals such as Jimmy Savile, the McAlpine libel case and payoffs to executives. But while she said the BBC needed to reform its governance, Miller said it was an extremely good institution and called on people to stop fogging the issue with other noises off. Her comments came after Theresa May, the home secretary, warned the BBC that the might of its online news operation was undermining local newspapers and called on it to think carefully about its presence locally and the impact that has on local democracy. Miller said this was an example of a distraction away from the main issue, which is getting governance in place. When it comes to the BBC, we already have a public value test which I think back in 2009 looked at local news provision and has already had an impact on the way that the BBC is dealing with this. Clearly the BBC keep these things under review. She addressed the issue of the licence fee in a similar way, after Grant Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, suggested the BBC could face a cut in its payments or have to share it with other broadcasters unless it rebuilt public trust and became more transparent. Miller said: The immediate priority is that the BBC gets its house in order. Obviously the charter review is in 2016 and all of these other issues Im sure will be part of that. But we should not distract away from the most important thing at the moment and we should not let other things get in the way. The media secretary said she would have hoped the root and branch review of the BBCs governance could be completed more quickly but she was glad it was being taken seriously.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 07:58:43 +0000
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