Thank you for copying me into your letter to the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport about your concerns on the reporting standards of the BBC and the Balen Report.
It is important that the BBC ensures all subjects are treated with due accuracy and due impartiality in news. The BBC’s Charter embeds the core principle of impartiality in the BBC’s overall mission and enshrines the principle of editorial independence for the BBC’s Director-General. I hope this will make sure the BBC remains a trusted provider of high-quality news for audiences in the UK and abroad.
Regarding your concerns about the refusal to publish the Balen Report, as the BBC is operationally and editorially independent of Government, the decision whether to publish the Report is a matter for the corporation itself, with the Government having no involvement in the matter.
It is absolutely right that trust needs to be restored in a culture of transparency and accountability within the BBC, and I welcome that fundamental changes were delivered to the renewal of the BBC’s charter in 2015-16.