Charter Declaration

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We are diverse parties in our individual conflicts with the BBC. We are unified by this, our joint declaration:

1.   Within our sphere of knowledge,  the BBC has committed the most serious breaches of the Royal Charter, the Editorial Guidelines and its oft repeated pledges to report world events with integrity.

We charge the Corporation with betrayal of the British people and global audiences by broadcasting sophisticated specious disinformation, biased representation of key issues and events, as well as outright falsehoods.

We believe we have a legitimate expectation that the Corporation, the management, and government appointees, be held accountable to the Royal Charter and related legal obligations.

2. We note, the Corporation is tasked by the Home Office to "make sure [audiences] are at the heart of decision-making in the future".  We champion that declaration knowing it can only be held true if the control of the Corporation is wrested from vested interest and overseen  by forces independent of the BBC and government.

The existing top down pyramid structure must be replaced by a diverse confederation aiming broadly to represent the knowledge, opinion and interests of our multi faceted society.

Finding new stewardship structures that are flexible and free of unaccountable influence is the key issue in ensuring the Corporation meets its public duties as laid out in the Charter and Agreements. New thinking is required if citizens are to be trusted to "better" unaccountable power and be "at the heart of decision-making in the future".

The BBC itself is the ideal resource to explore "new thinking" by tapping the wealth of creativity and knowledge that resides in the BBC's audience - the wisdom of crowds. Overwhelming public pressure has to be applied to impel Parliament to direct the BBC to launch a nationwide inquiry into its governance - overseen by independent hands.

Let the People Speak

Outlining a nationwide inquiry: a basis for independent but unified demands on Parliament as a start towards meaningful transformation of the BBC.

To balance the serious complaints, which demonstrate deliberate BBC disinformation and bias, as well as to initiate the quest for a new system of governance, a series of independent documentaries for broadcast at peak viewing times on the BBC needs to be commissioned. This process must be controlled by "independent hands".

Each in the series of documentaries has to be followed by country wide audience engagement programmes as "Audience Commissions" publicly to confront the BBC on the facts and emphasis of their reporting as well as to advise on transforming the control structure in light of audience deliberations on evidence presented.

These "Audience Commissions" should have power to call further hearings, to commission research and invite witnesses to give testimony.

But the first step can be a "Commission of Complainants" drawn from those allied to this declaration or prominent in challenging BBC hegemony.  This "Commission" would consist of  stalwart complainers, critical academics, expert dissidents and groups dedicated to particular causes - all as posted here.

The Commission of Complainants will be needed to direct and oversee the timeline and variety of "dissident documentaries" and to shape the structure and content of audience participation programmes, i.e. BBC programmes set-up as "audience commissions", tasked publicly to uncover the truth about Charter abuse and charges of bias and disinformation.

The findings of these "Audience Commissions", steered and assessed by a Commission of Complainants, should be widely broadcast to set the next stage for transforming the Corporation into what it promises to be: a bastion of honest and professional investigation and reporting, where the heart of decision making lies in the hands of the audience.

Like Greek "city democracy" the way to select these "independent hands" fairly is by lottery to choose a random selection from the pool of candidates. Again like the Greeks, annual rotation is essential.

If the audience participation exercises are adroitly designed and executed we shall have the potential to discover, or rediscover, processes whereby the will, wisdom and profound knowledge of many individuals is applied meaningfully for the benefit of all.

If genuinely produced, promoted and screened at peak times, these programmes will attract millions to see BBC management openly challenged by the public - and to hear what listeners and viewers think are appropriate external and independent mechanisms to ensure the Corporation respects the Royal Charter and places audiences "are at the heart of decision-making in the future". [1]

If this seems all too much to ask, consider the alternative of doing what we have always done before - to get what we have always got before - fobbed off

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