The BBC must be independent in all matters concerning the fulfilment of its Mission and the promotion of the Public Purposes, particularly as regards editorial and creative decisions, the times and manner in which its output and services are supplied, and in the management of its affairs.
Paragraph (1) is subject to any provision made by or under this Charter or the Framework Agreement or otherwise by law.
Article 3[1] of the BBC Charter, 2016[a]
The BBC's independence is one of its core tenets; its editorial independence limited only by its mission of impartiality in the public interest. With the government, duly or not, advising on what the public interest is.
The BBC has, with the possible exception of World War II, long displayed a degree of independence that public broadcasting in other Western European countries came to only later. This generalisation by Goodwin[2]: 96 is echoed often, though the pecieved and actual degrees of independence are ofttimes debated.
Seaton writes that chairs of the governing body have frequently been chosen with the aim of aligning the BBC with certain agendas. She suggests that, while this approach may appear confrontational and potentially antagonistic and recent chairs have been too business oriented, not every controversial appointment turned out to be a bad one. She gives the negative example of Charles Hill, who she considers to be perceived as detrimental from a historical perspective, but states that subsequent appointments like Marmaduke Hussey and Christopher Bland while met with similar scepticism initially, proved to be great chairs.[3]
Of interest also, though contentious, is that internal reports (such as the Balen Report) aimed at checking its own standards of journalism, have been ruled as not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000—and thus not subject to public release.[4] It marks a perhaps odd sort of independence from overt public scrutiny.
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