BBC statement in response to DCMS questions
The BBC today (Thursday 11 December) welcomed the start of the Charter Review process with the publication of the DCMS' questions and launch of their public consultation.
It also announced that it would complement this consultation with its own programme of events to stimulate wide debate about the BBC's future among all audiences.
BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, said today: "We are pleased that the Secretary of State is committed to the continuation of a strong, independent BBC and that she recognises that the BBC plays a unique role in defining what Britain is as a nation.
"Given the changes we are witnessing in both technology and society we also believe she is right to stress in the document that Charter Review will be both complex and significant.
"The Secretary of State is asking interesting and challenging questions and we look forward to an open and rigorous debate in which, of course, the BBC will be playing its full part."
The DCMS public consultation will continue until 31 March. During this time the BBC will be using its airwaves and online sites to stimulate debate and encourage as wide an audience as possible to think about what the BBC means to them now and in the future.
This will help shape the BBC's response to the DCMS' questions, which will be published in March, along with its own vision and consultative paper of what the BBC should be in the 21st century.
This will be followed by a series of papers around big ideas that will contribute to the debate throughout 2004.
The BBC's Charter Review website
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