The BBC of print
From Stephanie Lawson and Rupert Read Sir: It is an indictment of the pitiful state of our 'democracy' that Britain's future role in Europe should depend on the whim of one egregious Australian-born businessman (`The man who calls the shots', 24 April). How to stop similar circumstances arising again? Our broadcast media — i.e. the BBC — is the envy of the world. Our tabloid-dominated press is by contrast a laughing-stock and a scandal. The solution is obvious: we need a British Press Corporation, an equivalent of the BBC for print media. The 'Beep' could run a small stable of publications from tabloids to broadsheets (and even perhaps weeklies too).
It could be part-subsidised out of general taxation, and would therefore be more independent of the business interests whose ownership deforms the content of so much of our press. Drawing as it would on the existing structure of news-gathering available to the BBC, the BPC would be cost-effective as well as provide an intelligent and informative source of news. Its competition would surely have the effect of undercutting the worst at least of the present tabloid excesses and the dominance of a handful of private individuals over the British polity.
Stephanie Lawson and Rupert Read
University of East Anglia, Norwich
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