of the regulator, how the regulator shapes the future of the bbc directly impacts on everyone who consumes its content and also interacts with it as an institution. let s understand first of all more about what ofcom wants. let s hearfrom kevin backhurst, group director of content and media policy. and, kevin, reading your review today, you sound a little underwhelmed by how the bbc explains itself. tell us why. i think we feel that the bbc should absolutely strive all the time to explain itself to audiences and to viewers, and also to be transparent to the audiences who pay the licence fee, and also to the rest of the creative industries around the uk about what it is planning, how it is approaching programming, how it is delivering its mission, its public purposes. ofcom s role essentially is to make sure the bbc delivers what parliament has set out for the bbc, which is its public purposes, which are across things like delivering things like impartial news, learning conten
now, the uk s media regulator ofcom has published a major review of what the bbc does, particularly focussed on three areas how the bbc deals with complaints, how the bbc approaches impartiality and how the bbc defines the services that it offers people in the uk. needless to say, how the bbc takes the advice of the regulator, how the regulator shapes the future of the bbc directly impacts on everyone who consumes its content and also interacts with it as an institution. let s understand first of all more about what ofcom wants. let s hearfrom kevin backhurst, group director of content and media policy. and, kevin, reading your review today, you sound a little underwhelmed by how the bbc explains itself. tell us why. i think we feel that the bbc should absolutely strive all the time to explain itself to audiences and to viewers, and also to be transparent to the audiences who pay the licence fee, and also to the rest of the creative industries around the uk about what it is
executive saying it, the bbc, clearly needs to address widespread perceptions about impartiality. owen meredith from the news media association, do you agree with that, that there is a perception issue for the bbc here? yes, it is not really my place to hugely comment on this, but there is definitely a perception problem with the bbc. i wonder if it is, given many of your members are partly responsible for that perception, because many newspapers have plenty to say about what the bbc is and isn t doing. of course, and newspapers are free to take their own editorial line, i represent the publishing businesses
and see where you can improve. they have said we will work with ofcom on this so i imagine you have further conversations with the bbc. so there are these three areas we are looking at, services, complaints. next let s consider impartiality. we have heard from ofcom s chief executive saying it, the bbc, clearly needs to address widespread perceptions about its impartiality. owen meredith from the news media association, do you agree with that, that there is a perception issue for the bbc here? yes, it is not really my place to hugely comment on this, but there is definitely a perception problem with the bbc. i wonder if it is, given many of your members are partly responsible for that perception, because many newspapers have plenty to say about what the bbc is and isn t doing. of course, and newspapers are free to take their own editorial line, i represent the publishing businesses and industry that publish them, not the editorial line, which individual editors and papers are free to d