The BBC should not ‘defend’ the licence fee – it should boast about it

Editorial: The principle of public service broadcasting funded by a licence fee is a priceless bulwark against corporate media interests

The broadcaster is facing a deep financial cut this year (Getty)

The BBC is fighting to defend its funding. It faces a deep cut in June this year, when it will be forced, under a law passed by David Cameron and George Osborne, to pay for free TV licences for over-75s out of its own budget.

Hence the controversial decision to close the BBC2 programme Victoria Derbyshire. Unfortunately, the BBC seems to have handled this badly. As a result, more people are upset by the corporation’s failure to tell Ms Derbyshire she was being taken off air than by the government’s policy that prompted the decision in the first place.

The next phase of the BBC campaign appears to be a leak suggesting that Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today programme are going to have their budgets cut. While we applaud the BBC for the vigour of its campaign, we suspect that there may be something of the “6 Music ploy” about this story.