BBC Handbook 1973 [antikvár]

The First Fifty Years by Charles Curran, Director-General of the BBC When I joined the B B C as a producer of Home Talks in 1947 one of the first BBC publications to come my way was the Year Book, as this Handbook was then called. The BBC was 25 years old, and it had just taken delivery of its third Royal Charter. Moreover, since the end of the war it had been coping with one of those massive upheavals which it inflicts upon itself from time to timeforthe good (it hopes) of its audience. The Television Service had re-opened. The Third Programme was brand new. There was a new Light Programme - and so on. It is interesting to recall now what Sir William Haley, then Director-General, had to say in his introductory chapter. Of the Charter and the Licence that went with it he said: 'The main provisions are largely the same as before. The Corporation's constitutional organisation has been preserved. It remains an independent body, it has charge of its own affairs. Its programmes are safeguarded from outside interference. Its position within the community and the corollary of its trust of impartiality remain.' I am happy to be able to say as much 25 years and three Directors-General later. Sir William Haley also had something to say about the justification for the B B C's unique place within the community, and what he had to say is more debatable in our day and age. 'The real justification is that it is an instrument of social purpose and a means to raise public taste.' What did he mean by social purpose ? Apparently it was no less than to serve the end of bringing about an informed democracy. Now I am fully in agreement with that statement. My only reservation Concerns the use of the word 'instrument', because of its possible misinterpretation. The B B C is not and cannot be allowed to become an instrument for anything or anyone. But, so far as ours is an informed democracy, the BBC has played a part in making it so; and I am glad that the B B C should take its share of the credit. To present broadcasting as a means to raise public taste is to adopt a somewhat paternalistic attitude which may seem out of tune with our times. The BBC does not exist to shape society to some pre-determined pattern. Supplying that society with an accurate and comprehensive service of impartial broadcast journalism is not shaping it to a pattern. Setting out to 'raise taste' could be. We have a continuing duty to educate