i had covid, which was fine but i'm now back. congratulations on both fronts and i'm very proud of you. thank you. and i've got you a present which is a half—hour long interview with the culture secretary, nadine dorries! marvellous! this episode of newscast. the bad news is you have to share it with me. fair enough, that'll do! hello, it's adam in the studio. and chris in the studio. and tonight we are joined by the culture secretary. hello. hi. welcome. you are responsible for so many important issues in the media and we will get fully into your brief in a minute but first of all, what you think about the bbc�*s new political editor designate? not that you had a role in it! i think he's lovely and i think it's a great choice for the job. thank you. i genuinely didn't see that coming! i thought you were going to talk about actual news! i wonder how you'll feel when he's criticising you! me too! loads of things to talk about in your department, the online safety bill which was in parliament for the first time a few days ago, there is the broadcasting white paper which hasjust been published today, i saw you had it in your bag when you got here. but there has been loads of just news at westminster this week about the culture at westminster. you are the culture secretary, you're not responsible for the culture at westminster! but how have you felt this week, just story after story with westminster just looking pretty terrible? so you know, the broadcasting white paper, it hasjust been three 15—hour days for me and i haven't really had much of an eye or an ear to what's been going on in westminster. but i have caught up on some of it this afternoon and it is disappointing. of course it is disappointing. if it was at the bbc, you would be disappointed. so when you hear about colleagues behaving badly or inappropriately you feel let down yourself. is it, you spent a lot of your working life doing other stuff beyond all things politics, to what extent when you see the headlines that we've seen around this place in the last week or so is it illustrative of the society at large and the problems that society at large has, or something that is somehow worse here, for whatever reason that might be? i think it is because i worked ten years in the nhs, then ran my own business before i got into politics and i had been in politics for quite a long time as well because i'm pretty old! i have been around a while and i think it's actually getting worse. do you? worse? what i had to deal with when i got here you know, mansplaining and just being treated like, you know, i don't know, a secretary, all that kind of stuff. having to speak very loudly to be heard. having to speak over men in meetings. not being listened to when you spoke up and i had to deal with that kind of stuff. but i think there are changes happening in westminster. i always thought that get more women in, you know, things would get better. but sadly, i don't see that happening at the moment. i think we just need to have, you know, a majority of women in, maybe? so it's just disappointing. i mean, i cannot believe somebody might have been watching porn in house of commons chamber? it's difficult, isn't it? in the mother of all parliaments. yeah. but you know, what is important is and this wasn't in place for much of the time i've been an mp probably for 15 years or so, is that there is now a proper process in place. so that the people who saw that happening have somewhere to go and are supported, as victims of that. because i would feel disgusted and pretty violated if i was sat next to someone who was watching porn on the phone. so the fact that there is somewhere that those people can go, but also that there is a process in place to deal with that inappropriate behaviour, and put in place the right sanctions. so it is quite comforting to know that grievance system is there now because for 15 years, or however long it was, there was nothing like that. the fact that that is there now i think is pretty important and that, i suppose, speaks to a more professional side of westminster, and that it is catching up with the real world and what happens in the real world. that professionalism is in place. when you said a minute or two ago that things had got worse, i'm wondering what in specific terms you mean. i think watching porn on phones, i wasn't referring to that particular, maybe that it'sjust because of the advancement of technology and the means to be able to do that now. but it's an environment where somebody feels they're comfortable to do that. they feel that it is kind of appropriate to do that, which is extraordinary. i think to your shock, it's kind of like crossing a line. a line that was stepped over, really. that is this week. the other thing you've been doing, as you said, was the broadcasting white paper. loads of stuff in there about the future of, we used to call it tv, i know what it is any more. tv, on demand, video? you name it. one of the big things is privatising channel 4. i was reading the responses to the consultation you did and it sounds like about 99.9% of the responses said don't privatise it, so why are you going ahead? so, we have listened to the consultation, we have read every single response but ijust would like to point out that over 40,000 of those responses came from politically motivated organisation 38 degrees and template responses so i think that's important to point out. and 53% of the public didn't know channel fours state owned. but our responsibility as a government is to take a view and our view is that we need to future proof channel for and protected for the future. and all the people that currently run channel 4. they said the same, didn't they? yes, that is a valid point. but it is also interesting because you look at the consultation responses you have altered don't sell it or leave it in state ownership, and you look at a public polling which shows that 53% of the public didn't even know so it's notjust the one consultation process that we have taken but our responsibility as the government is to take a view, and our view is that we need to future proof channel for and we need to protect it for the future. and you have just actually, in your opening comments done the job for me. we are in very different broadcasting landscape today. it is changing at warp speed. it's notjust public service broadcasters any more, it's netflix, it's amazon prime, it's disney +, it's all of those streamers which are now changing the broadcasting landscape dramatically. channel 4 itself are saying we would like to raise investment. we are saying, yes, we are going to enable you to do that. you can't raise investment when you are state owned. your license doesn't allow you to do that. let's not go down the avenue of talking about the anomaly of state owning a broadcaster, but you can't do that while you are state owned. but by privatising, as a public service broadcaster, with prominence, which is in the broadcasting white paper which will be in the media bill, we are going to allow you to raise that investment so you can grow and innovate and the sky is the limit. start to dream, channel 4. that is the criticism you hear from the smaller production companies, that if you allow, say, a big production company to buy channel 4 when it goes private, then they could just give all the programmes to themselves to make and then all the smaller production companies lose out but i can see the arguments. there are lots of protections in the broadcasting white paper to stop that happening, including the fact that channel 4 is being sold as a public service broadcaster. so there will still be rules about what they have to show? about making british content, which is essential british content, that money is still spent in the regions. there is lots of caveats in there to protect channel 4. the reason why we are selling, one of the reasons we are selling channel 4 is the money we will get, the capital we will raise from the sale is to be invested back that sector. into training and skills. we have at least 18, 19 independent film studios opening in the uk next year, but there are no people to work in those film studios. but there are people from the city i come from, liverpool, and all across the uk, who would love to work in a film studio, who would love to work in the creative industries, but don't get the chance right now. so putting that money back into training, back into the regions, back into those areas that need levelling up, so we can train skills to work in that sector. we made more films in the uk in the last three months of last year than they did in hollywood, that shows... and that is before the new studios are built. do you have a sense of how much money you're going to generate from the sale of channel 4 and does the government have a view on who it wouldn't want to buy it? so, as i said, it is being sold as a public service broadcaster. i'm not going to comment too much on the sales process at this point because i can't. and as you can see from the broadcasting white paper, there are lots of caveats in there to protect channel 4, to protect public service broadcasters, to protect that british content. even though that might mean you get less money for it? so, i will make a decision on the final bidder, and there are... what if elon musk bought it?! would you be ok with that? do you think that's going to happen? he's got a lot of money to spend! on random things! he does, doesn't he? but i don't think he's going to be interested in channel 4. what about if rupert murdoch or one of the murdoch clan wanted to buy it? i'm not going to go down the road of discussing who is going to buy it or not. apart from anything else, i'm not sure it's a very wise thing to do. people now consume their television where they want, when they want, on whatever they want. and that all has to be taken into account and therefore we put prominence, which is going to go into the media bill, which guarantees that when people switch on their smart tvs or whatever, that channel 4 is listed amongst those public service broadcasters, and easy to find so it is there and prominent. that's a good example of one of the caveats you are putting in there. what do you say to people when they say, oh, she's just privatising it because she doesn't like channel 4 news because every time she goes on there, they give her a hard time? it's just... i get a hard time everywhere i go! but it doesn't even come into the consciousness. it's not part of the decision—making process. 0k. this is something which has been looked at... honestly, not at all? because you do hear, we regularly hearfrom people, conservatives, who have long grumbled about channel 4 news, claiming it is left—wing and all the rest of it and, in their defence, they argue they are not, but that is a common critique you hear from conservatives about channel 4 and its news output so it's not an unreasonable question to ask if that was a factor. well, it's not, chris, but, you know, channel 4 doesn't help itself when its main news anchor was going around shouting, "f the tories." so it didn't actually help itself in that regard. but what i would say is that of course there are a lot of conservative mps who don't like channel 4 news. some people may argue that it was incredibly biased but a lot of conservative mps would probably argue for it not to be sold. actually, that brings us on to impartiality. and chris is going to be our impartialitier in chief in a couple of weeks! i mean, he's already very impartial, like we all are. you talk about bbc impartiality. give us some hints about how we could do that better from your point of view. what have we been getting wrong? let's first of all establish, does the bbc have a problem with impartiality? yes, it does. your director—general admits that himself. which is manifested in what way? if there wasn't, there wouldn't be a review, a dyson review or a ten point impartiality plan or even a plan as to how the impartiality plan is to be implemented. so, you know, yes, it does have a problem with impartiality. is it possible for it to be dealt with? well, the ten point plan is really a good start. that's going to take time to bed in and to work. it's ourjob here to be impartial about your suggestions about a lack of impartiality so i approach this with an open mind in terms of, what specifically, when you make the suggestion there about a problem with impartiality, are you thinking of particular things where you are watching the tv or listening to the radio or whatever and just think, blimey, they are not getting that right. they are not thinking of that in the round or whatever. if we were doing a training course, they would show a clip and say, what did you think of that clip? so can you give us a version of that? so my issue recently was to do with the jewish schoolchildren on the bus. and the reporting of that. and notjust the reporting of that but the length of time it took for the bbc to respond to the issues surrounding that and the length of time it took to respond to the complaint. that isjust one example thatjumps to mind. the bbcjust tripped up on these. were we to anti brexit in the negotiations? the interesting thing around articulating the concept of impartiality and i say this out loud as someone who is about to take on a job which will be rightly hugely scrutinised around impartiality, which is that there is a difference, isn't there, between robustly pursuing a line of questioning with a senior politician, for instance, in the name of trying to work out what a politician believes, find new stuff out. there was a difference between that and assuming the line of questioning is revealing thatjournalist�*s own personal point of view. yeah, i think it is opinion also. it's notjust the questioning, it is the opining. which i think sometimes create that impression, that opinion. so how do you see a sort of modern, and we can come in to conversations about funding and licence fee and all that sort of stuff, but in terms of impartiality, what does it look like, when you see it, what does it look like? objective, and i think it is more about news reporting than opining. if we are talking about news particularly, i think it is more about getting back to reporting news than a passing opinion on news. and for me, that is probably an issue. but, you know, your own director—general has acknowledged this and is addressing this. and i think... do you think he is addressing it successfully? there hasn't been time yet. the ten point plan only came out three months ago. and it is going to take time to work through. sometimes i wonder if it is a culture. all organisations develop cultures within them, whether it is a cricket club or a broadcaster, they all develop a culture. that is like that story when people were crying because that always had a total majority but it is nonsense. sometimes the bbc, i think, just thinks it is right, isn't necessary politically aligned, but, you know, ithink necessary politically aligned, but, you know, i think the bbc itself is looking to its own listening and viewing figures, it is looking to the feedback it is looking to the feedback it is looking to the feedback it is getting externally early, and the complaints it is receiving and it is coming to its own conclusions. i am conscious there would be people. — i am conscious there would be people, this as the ultimate journalistic value, there would be people who would say, you know. — be people who would say, you know. so _ be people who would say, you know, so baked into the idea of being _ know, so baked into the idea of being a — know, so baked into the idea of being a british broadcast journalist, notjust on being a british broadcast journalist, not just on the bbc, _ journalist, not just on the bbc, by— journalist, not just on the bbc, by the way, beyond itv and sky, _ bbc, by the way, beyond itv and sky, for— bbc, by the way, beyond itv and sky, for instance. this— sky, for instance. this sounds like you are preparing for a job interview, by the way. they would say it is perfectly reasonable to ask the question, it is fine — reasonable to ask the question, it is fine to _ reasonable to ask the question, it is fine to ask the question because _ it is fine to ask the question because perception is reality, but your— because perception is reality, but your critique guns at some of the — but your critique guns at some of the central values that motivates thousands of journalists in this country, within_ journalists in this country, within the bbc and beyond, by the way, — within the bbc and beyond, by the way, i— within the bbc and beyond, by the way, i don't make this as a bbc_ the way, i don't make this as a bbc specific point. so _ bbc specific point. so they could possibly could think that, but i go back to the central point that your own organisation has had to bring out a io—point planned because it has accepted it has a problem, so it isn't me saying it, it is your own organisation. last question about ourselves, but the white paper hints at the review of the licensee that will come up in the next few years before the next charter. in the next few months. when that process — in the next few months. when that process starts, _ in the next few months. when that process starts, so - in the next few months. when that process starts, so do - in the next few months. when that process starts, so do in i that process starts, so do in your heart of hearts, do you have an idealfunding model that can erase that licensing fee? there are so many suggestions, i think. the only thing that sits on my heart on this is the fact that 74% of all convictions for the non—payment of the license fee are women. bat, daily, is a thought in my mind that i think is grossly unfair, and something that cannot be allowed to continue, because we know women very often take responsibility for household, children, bills, names on rent books, mortgages, and it is the woman being prosecuted, and that is — that is the only thing, if you like, that i take into this personally, that is absolutely wrong, that almost three quarters of all convictions are women. but, in terms of the models, we are hopefully going to be announcing very soon the beginning of a review process, and the charter is due in 2027. it will take time to get a new model in place, embedded and transferred over but if you look around the world at the way people do this and fund public—sector, sorry, public service broadcasters, may only criteria would be fairness. that would suggest means testing stop there are a lot of suggestions coming forward even before doing the review, and i'm interested to see what funding models people come up with. council taxes was one suggestion we had, part subscription, you know, a lot of suggestions coming forward. i want to innovative on this, it is important that i see here that the british broadcasting corporation is a global beacon in the world. it is globally recognised. look at what bbc reporters are doing in ukraine right now. look at the reporting on russia and ukraine, it is the best in the world, and a lot of people think, she is bashing the bbc, it is not true. again, i want to protect the bbc but a license fee model designed in 1945 and implemented in 1946, it is 2022, it is not going to be applicable in 2027. an online safety bill, the huge piece of legislation that has just arrived in parliament, quite revolutionary for our people will be protected online. we could talk about that for hours and hours but we don't have time, but is there a world where the elon musk—owned twitter, really—really free speech and the new uk regulations for online safety which are going to be quite strict, actually, that those two things can exist at the same time? don lane safety bill is there to hold organisations, platforms like twitter to its own at and conditions. track on acceptable. they don't say, we allow racism, misogyny, abuse, bullying, misinformation, disinformation on the platforms — of course it doesn't, but what the online safety bill is about is that legally they abide by those terms and conditions, and that is fundamentally the substance of the bell. so the online safety bill, elon musk and twitter, what is he going to do? abide by his terms and conditions and do what he says or change them? what i would say algorithms, pornography being shot two children, all of those awful things on that platform. we have talked quite a lot about media and digital. i have to ask about — about media and digital. i have to ask about sport. _ about media and digital. i have to ask about sport. part - about media and digital. i have to ask about sport. part of- to ask about sport. part of your— to ask about sport. part of your ministerial remit and jealousy, because we have seen a lot— jealousy, because we have seen a tot about _ jealousy, because we have seen a lot about chelsea and at the news — news. yes, has that news. — yes, has that been sold yet? does the government have a view on what _ does the government have a view on what is — does the government have a view on what is going on there and how— on what is going on there and how tong _ on what is going on there and how long it is taking? chelsea is being sold, as you know. the sanctions apply. those sanctions still apply during the sale. what i will say is that chelsea is very much on borrowed time at the moment. there is a short window left for that sale to take place. it has to happen soon. what happens if the window closes and it hasn't sold? i'm not going to go into those conversations but i think it is enough for me to say there is a very short window and the club has to be sold soon. how soon are we talking? weeks. chelsea is very much on borrowed time right now, that's all i will say. very diplomatic slightly cryptic phrase. is borisjohnson on borrowed time? not at all. not in the slightest. he's not down at all. i'm slightly irritated today about the fact that, you know, the prime minister, when all of this partygate stuff started. are so called partygate. it's not what i call it. he was ambushed. allegedly. he said he did not even see a cake. from his own mouth? yes, i know it didn't happen. he discussed it at cabinet? it was a cabinet meeting the following day. because we all asked. when you say the day it came out, it came out in the times on the 9th ofjune because we actually briefed it. durham police, sir keir starmer attends a prearranged social event with a quiz, alcohol, and food, and very quickly it is found that he did not break any rules. the prime minister apologised a number of times, humbly at the dispatch box. he put himself forward. he took the fine. meet at the pain. sir keir starmer seems to be holding the prime minister to a different set of standards. he's not been fined. but the problem is, should he have been? i would say yes. but the police operate independently. it is theirjudgment to take. yes but it is one set of regulations and two police forces who have interpreted them entirely differently. i think both events should be held to the same standard of investigation. as you will see, richard holden, the mp for durham, has asked durham police to reopen this. labour would say that sir keir starmer was working and he had a beer and a takeaway. it was a prearranged social event. i want to talk about tv that you cannot stand or never watch. i've never watched friends. i haven't got anything against it i've never got round to it. members of my family could go on mastermind about friends. could you tell him what it is? have you really never seen it? never. and i'm not going to have time. are there things that you actively, i don't know, they come on and you say, i cannot stand that, or stuff that gets talked about a lot, like friends did years ago, but you just turn it off? i became a health ministerjust as the pandemic struck, so i have to say i have watched very little television, and then i was promoted to secretary of state, so i've watched very little television. you're the secretary of state for tv now. but television is part of your remit. except last week i watched first dates, and the first date was somebody who works in my sector in the gaming industry. on the date was set up with somebody else also in the gaming industry. i loved it. it was very good. what's always great among the conservatives that when the bbc has a political drama, isn't it interesting that netflix have made a drama and the slimeball is a tory minister, so it isn'tjust the bbc. the bbc do it more often. didn't you call your daughters snowflakes, how did that go? they owned it. chuckles thank you very much, nadine dorries. that's all from us. and we will be back on tv next week. goodbye. hello there. the month of april has been an exceptionally dry month up and down the country. that's because we've had high pressure dominating the weather scene. now, as we head into the may bank holiday, it looks like this area of low pressure will bring some rainfall, some of it heavy across the north—west. as it spreads south across the uk, it will tend to weaken. but high pressure will bringing another fine day for friday. a chilly start, mind you, across northern and western areas. plenty of sunshine here. again, more cloud for east and southeast england and north—east scotland. here, we'll see a few showers into the afternoon, the odd one across the far south—east. and temperatures will reach highs around the mid—teens for many of us, but we could see 17 or 18 through the central belt of scotland. our winds will be light but still fresh through the channel. now, as we head through friday night, under largely clear skies, certainly for england and wales, it'll turn quite chilly. but we'll start to see the first signs of that area of low pressure pushing into the northwest, so here, less cold as the cloud and the breeze starts to pick up. but a touch of frost across parts of england and wales. so for the weekend, it's quite a different feel. we will see this rain pushing its way southwards and eastwards. like i mentioned, it will be weakening somewhat. so into saturday, high pressure holds on again for much of england and wales. low pressure will start to pile into scotland and northern ireland, so here, it will be turning breezier and quite wet. some moderate bursts of rain across the north and the west of scotland. after that chilly start, though, england and wales will see another fine day with quite a bit of sunshine around, though cloud will tend to thicken across northern and western areas. so where we have the rain, then, that'll impact the temperatures, the low teens. quite a warm day to come for england and wales where we have all that sunshine. now, as we head through saturday night, that area of cloud and rain in the north begins to push its way southwards into much of england and wales, but it will be a weakening feature and conditions will dry up across the far north of scotland. but we hold onto a lot of cloud, so saturday night will be a milder one across the board. sunday promises to be a rather cloudy day, quite damp for parts of england and wales. the rain at this stage will be quite light and patchy, some drizzly rain. but the northern half of the country will see the driest of the conditions on sunday, so it's a reversal of fortunes and a bit of sunshine. we could make 16, 17 degrees. a little bit fresher further south because we'll have the thickest of the cloud. bank holiday monday looks a little bit drier. there could be a little bit of rain at times on tuesday. generally, it's a dry week next week, and there are just hints of it turning a little bit warmer across the south by friday. hello this is bbc news, i'm rich preston, ourtop stories: missiles strike the ukrainian capital kyiv, just as the un secretary general is on a visit for talks with president zelensky. from the two rockets that exploded in the city where i am so this is a dramatic war and we absolutely need to end this war. president biden asks congress for $33 billion in extra support for ukraine. senior ministers in the uk say some men in parliament behave like animals, it follows claims that an mp watched pornography in the commons. there is a broader point here that