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Watertight restrictions need to be put on the organisation that buys Channel 4, Dorothy Byrne has said.
When asked if Labour should commit to renationalise the network if in government, the former head of news and current affairs at Channel 4 told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
I don’t think it is for me to say what the Labour government should do.
But I think if this is what the government’s going to do, and it looks like it, I think the fight is on to really ensure as much as possible that there are watertight restrictions put on to this organisation that buys it.
If we do nothing in a landscape where traditional broadcasters have got declining incomes, declining amounts of money they can spend making new programmes, will Channel 4 be sustainable?
For me that’s the test, actually. Private ownership and the injection of money that could come from that could be good for making Channel 4 sustainable long-term.
I think it’s being privatised to throw a bit of red meat to Tory supporters of a very right-wing nature at a time that the government is in trouble.
I think the political agenda is to show that the government is doing something radically right-wing to please people. It’s the same agenda as attacking the licence fee.
Channel 4 is not there to compete with Netflix and Amazon. It’s there to provide a public service to the people of Britain, which it does brilliantly well with programmes like Channel 4 News and Unreported World.
It is flourishing and thriving at the moment, it costs the British people absolutely nothing, it is not in debt, it is very successful.
