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BBC's new DG must rip up Thompson's "tainted deal" says NUJ
The NUJ has invited George Entwistle, the newly appointed director general of the BBC to a public meeting to debate the alternative to the BBC cuts.
George Entwistle, director of BBC Vision, is to take over from Mark Thompson on an annual salary of £450,000. This is a smaller figure than the £671,000 earned by his predecessor.
Come and join the debate at a public meeting at the House of Commons, July 10, at 5.30pm, Committee Room 5. All welcome. More details here.
Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary, said: "We wish George Entwistle all the best in his new job and look forward to a constructive and positive working relationship.
"I hope that he will make it his priority to unpick the disastrous deal his predecessor negotiated with the government which resulted in the corporation agreeing to a licence fee freeze until 2017, while taking on extra funding of £340 million.
"The Leveson Inquiry has put the spotlight on the shady deal, conducted in secret between the BBC management and government. The new DG must take the brave step of bringing this deal into the open and look at a renegotiation. Jeremy Hunt, DCMS Secretary, who was at the centre of the deal, has been revealed as a "cheerleader" for the Murdochs.
"We now know the extent to which James Murdoch was able to go right to the heart of the Tory-led coalition in meetings and cosy dinner parties with George Osborne and David Cameron to reiterate his aggressive stance against the BBC, outlined in his MacTaggart lecture, when he launched a scathing attack on the corporation, accusing it of a 'land grab' in a beleaguered media market."
In an opinion article in the Sun on September 19, 2009, Jeremy Hunt, appeared to be singing from the same hymn sheet when he said: "The BBC is the only broadcaster that gets a guaranteed income with the licence fee so it doesn't have to focus all its energies on chasing ratings – it can chase quality as well.
"Yet if you want to make a complaint, you can only go to another part of the BBC, the BBC Trust. We have pledged to replace this with a truly independent body. And we should not be having inflationary rises in the licence fee in a year when there's next to no inflation. If the BBC had any shame, they'd have waived this year's £68m increase… with 47 BBC executives earning more than the Prime Minister, we need common sense on salaries."
The NUJ calls for a clean sheet. New DG: new deal.
