UK minister hints BBC’s impartiality will be scrutinised by media regulator Ofcom, denies Murdoch’s role in funding cuts

British Culture, Media and Sport Secretary John Whittingdale has hinted that complaints about BBC’s impartiality will be looked into by the media regulator Ofcom and BBC Trust will be divested of that task. He also dismissed speculations that News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch had influenced the U.K. government's policy to seek a £75 million (AU$162 million) cut in BBC funding.

The BBC is facing the cost-cutting challenge as part of its charter renewal due for 2016. The minister made clear that all complaints and allegations about impartiality currently overseen by the BBC Trust would no longer be “exclusively for the corporation.” He justified handing over the task to media regulator Ofcom as it has a good track record of having done a good job in regulating ITV and Channel 4, reports The Guardian.

“I’m not convinced that people feel that it is right that the BBC Trust decides if the BBC has got it right or wrong,” he said.

Whittingdale also allayed fears that the government is trying to dismantle the BBC and said such perceptions are “entirely wrong” and there is no “secret conspiracy at the government to attack the BBC.”

“There are occasions when I have been very annoyed by the BBC’s news coverage. Do I think there is general bias towards the left? No,” Whittingdale told an audience at the Guardian Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Murdoch angle

When asked what influence Rupert Murdoch had on the government’s policy towards the BBC, he said there is no substance in the reports that the meeting of News Corp boss with Chancellor George Osborne led to the decision of cutting BBC’s funding. Whittingdale said: “Any suggestion that this was a deal somehow influenced by Rupert Murdoch is conspiracy theory gone mad.”

He also rejected the Scottish National Party’s demand that the BBC in Scotland should have more autonomy with its extra funding.

SNP demand

Meanwhile, the demand for a more autonomous BBC in Scotland has been mooted by Nicola Sturgeon, first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party. Sturgeon called for a new Scottish BBC TV channel and a second radio station with the money currently being used to pay for U.K.-wide programs, reports The Telegraph.

Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish culture minister, also urged that the money coming from the “mismatch” between the £320 million (AU$691 million) raised in Scotland as BBC licence fee and the £200 million (AU$432 million) actually spent in Scotland can take care of that. Hyslop also wanted BBC news coverage in Scotland to be overhauled in such a way that all international stories should be presented “from a Scottish perspective.”

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