Abstract
On Sunday 15 July 1973, the BBC broadcast a programme headed A Question of Confidence in the series The People Talking. On 19 July, Sir Michael Swann, Chairman of the BBC, wrote a letter to the six MPs who took part expressing ‘regret’ about the programme, and advising them that the ‘Director-General is examining the possibility of mounting a further programme on this subject in which the issues would be discussed in a calmer atmosphere’. Next day, a letter critical of the stance adopted by Sir Michael Swann was sent to the same six MPs signed by more than 50 members of the General Features Department which had produced the programme. The Observer of 22 July reported that ‘a group of Governors took the view that the programme was so bad that only Mr Wilcox's dismissal would be an adequate response’. Later, the Director-General denied that discussions of this kind took place. In the following week it was reported that both the Association of Broadcasting Staff and the Association of Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians would ‘black any programme which the Corporation makes to atone for its recent “Question of Confidence” production’. At least one leader article (in the Guardian, 25 July) suggested that this case proved (yet again) the need for an independent broadcasting council.
This incident cannot be seen as an isolated controversy, but must be set in a wider context which raises and highlights questions of quite profound importance for the notion of public service broadcasting. In essence, these questions centre on the extent to which programme makers within the BBC are in a position to enjoy genuine independence from political influence in their coverage of politics and politicians. This leads to our ultimately needing to assess the role which public service broadcasting should assume in a democracy.