There will be a 12-week public consultation and the government is seeking views on how to ensure the BBC commands the public’s trust, is accountable to audiences and fully represents communities.
This includes potentially giving the corporation new responsibilities to counter misinformation and disinformation, updating the BBC’s mission to put accuracy on the same footing as impartiality and strengthening the BBC’s independence, including examining political appointments to the BBC’s board.
Labour MPs raised concerns around this issue in Parliament after the recent BBC controversy over the misleading edit of a Donald Trump speech on a Panorama prompted the resignations of the BBC director general and the CEO of News.
Trump is now suing the BBC for defamation over the edit.
Lord Hall told BBC News: “I think trying to take the politics as much as possible out of the organisation would be good. That means really looking carefully at appointments. I don’t think there should be any political appointments to the board.”
Others argue these appointments (there are five government-appointees on the BBC board including the chairman) ensure accountability and help challenge groupthink.
The BBC has faced a series of controversies in recent months for which it has had to apologise.
These include a documentary about children in Gaza that had to be taken down from BBC iPlayer after it emerged the child narrator was the son of a Hamas official and the failure immediately to remove the punk duo Bob Vylan’s set from a Glastonbury live stream after offensive comments were made on stage.
Nandy termed the Labour government “unashamedly supporters of the BBC as an institution, even as we’ve had serious frustrations with some of the decisions and failings that have taken place at the BBC in recent months”.
She said the review of the charter was the chance “to make sure that it can not just survive, but thrive. It’s an institution that belongs to us all. If it didn’t exist, we would have to invent it”.
The consultation will also look at how to devolve more commissioning to the regions and whether there should be a new obligation on the BBC to drive economic growth, build skills and support the UK economy.
The BBC is the only organisation operating under a royal charter with an expiry date. In a speech in November 2024, the BBC chairman Samir Shah said “there are more than 1,000 charter bodies, and I am not aware of any other that needs to be renewed like the BBC”.
He asked: “Should we consider the BBC also having a permanent charter like the others?”
The government appears to be consulting on this, with some suggesting the threat of a future Reform government is focusing minds on the uncertainty renewal every decade creates and whether it allows too much political interference.
Ayre said: “It’s interesting that the government chooses the word ‘future-proof’ for the BBC. Can that really mean that they’re considering not a 10-year charter, which is the norm, but a sort of self-sustaining charter which will see the BBC continuing in its key position as the national broadcaster for what the government calls decades to come?
“Of course future governments can always try to undo that, but actually a royal charter, it’s quite difficult to undo because technically it is the will of the monarch rather than of the government of the day”.
Hall said “the great thing about the charter review this time is that I believe the government wants to secure the BBC’s future for the long term. It could be a great legacy.”
Next year, following the consultation, the government will publish its own vision for the BBC.