Many 38 Degrees members thought the BBC should be defended.

38 Degrees members have been defending the BBC ever since James Murdoch’s attack on it in August 2009. The reports that the government was pushing the BBC to accept “a license fee raid” triggered a discussion about what we should do on our facebook page, and thousands of 38 Degrees members quickly contacted their MPs speaking out against these deep cuts being forced through behind closed doors.

We were worried about what this would mean for BBC programmes we all enjoy – cuts of over 20% could mean whole channels closing down. Secondly, members were worried about the long term future of the BBC. Many members believed that this decision to raid the BBC was influenced by Rupert Murdoch. Decisions about the licence fee were meant to be taken until next year, and there was a process that was meant to be followed. This deal was forced through behind closed doors and in less than 24 hours.

We’ll have to wait to see what the full effects of these cuts will be, and if they lead to specific issues we will want to campaign about. It it is clear though that the  and this probably isn’t the last time we’ll see politicians attacking. 38 Degrees members don’t think the BBC is perfect, but we do think it’s worth standing up for.

We will also need to keep up the pressure on Vince Cable to call a review of Rupert Murdoch’s plans to seize full control of BSkyB.

To find out what MP’s have been saying about Murdoch you can look here: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/stand-up-to-murdoch/

If your MP has replied to you, you can add their response here. There’s also a chance to share ideas about how to respond to MPs’ replies in the comments section below.

Tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members emailed their MPs after the Conservative Minister, Jeremy Hunt, launched an attack on the BBC by announcing plans to cut the licence fee in 2012.

38 Degrees members have been adding their MPs’ replies to this page on our website, and we’ve now got replies from most MPs. Quite a few MPs have also sent their constituents a reply they received from the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, after writing to him about the BBC.

Here’s the letter the Minister, Ed Vaizey has been sending to MPs:

]]> http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/08/19/bbc-under-threat-the-ministers-reply/feed/ 3 http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/07/27/save-the-bbc-what-did-your-mp-say/ http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/07/27/save-the-bbc-what-did-your-mp-say/#comments Tue, 27 Jul 2010 09:50:20 +0000 Johnny Chatterton http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/?p=1306 Tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members emailed their MPs after the Conservative Minister, Jeremy Hunt, launched an attack on the BBC by announcing plans to cut the licence fee in 2012.

Update: To make it easier to find your MP we’ve moved the spreadsheet to this page: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/BBC-under-threat/

38 Degrees members paid for these adverts for our succesful campaign against BBC cuts. What eye-catching ad ideas do you have for our campaign against the BSkyB takeover?

A few weeks ago, Rupert Murdoch was going full steam ahead with his plan to take 100% control of BSkyB. He’d gone public with the plans and he had the backing of BSkyB top brass. But it’s just emerged that he’s delayed making the next step.

For the deal to go ahead he needs to submit his plans to the European Commission. Last week there were rumours that Murdoch hadn’t done this. We’ve just had that confirmed – Murdoch’s delayed submitting his takeover plans to Brussels.

There’s been no public explanation. Only Murdoch himself and a few senior executives at News Corp will know exactly what’s going on. But it seems likely that our pressure has had an effect – Rupert Murdoch has decided to bide his time and hope we’ll go away.

He may be taking his time, but Murdoch still wants to extend his control of the UK media and people power is still our best bet for stopping him. We need to seize the opportunity of extra time to get more people involved and hatch even better plans. That way when Murdoch does make his next move, we’ll be ready to move even faster than him.

Now we’ve got more time to deliver the campaign, we’ve got more time to come up with creative ways of getting Vince Cable’s attention. We can work together to come up with the most powerful message possible. Have you got an idea for a powerful advert? A draft design? Another way of getting the campaign message across? Please share your ideas for powerful adverts, and other creative tactics by uploading them as comments to this blog post.

On Friday, Jeremy Hunt announced that he plans to cut the BBC’s licence fee. This new attack comes just a few days we won the campaign we fought together to save 6Music.

The new Culture Minister is keen to make a start on weakning the BBC, however. This weekend, he said he was thinking about plans to cut the license fee. The new government are dipping their toes in the water, to see what sort of reaction they get. They’re under pressure to start weakening the BBC from all sides: media billionaires like Rupert Murdoch can’t wait to see the end of proper public broadcasting in the UK.

Today, there’s been a massive, people-powered response to the Culture Minister’s comments. Thousands of us have already written to our MPs, asking them to contact Jeremy Hunt and stop him going ahead with the plans – click  here to join in. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow #proudoftheBBC trending right now.

With 6 Music, we’ve proved once that when we work together we can defend the BBC from its enemies. Now we need to come together again to make sure this new threat to the BBC doesn’t go ahead.

The BBC Trust just announced “initial conclusions” on cuts to BBC services including 6 Music and Asian Network.

The effect of our campaign is obvious. The Trust rejects the plan to close 6 Music, saying “the case has not been made”. It says it will only go ahead with closing Asian Network if it sees plans for “meeting the needs of the station’s audience in different ways”.  [1]

Together we shifted this debate. Back in February, the Murdoch media and their political allies were in all out attack mode. The BBC was under pressure from all angles to cut more, deeper, sooner. We shifted this debate with people power: 44,000 of us signed the 38 Degrees petition to the BBC Trust.

We’ve already achieved a massive amount. But this is no time to stop working together. We’ve shifted the BBC’s plans, but big threats remain.  We’ll need to keep speaking up for listeners, viewers and licence fee payers. We’ll need to be ready to fight back against enemies of public service broadcasting in the UK.

Please help make sure that 38 Degrees can keep standing up for the BBC. Click here to donate:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-announcement

6 Music may be saved for now but it’s soon likely to face yet another review soon.  We’ve made sure Asian Network can’t be scrapped without a plan for replacing it, but it remains to be seen if those plans are any good at all. And there are still plans for deep cuts in other areas.

The BBC’s enemies may have been a bit quieter recently, but they haven’t gone away. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire hates the BBC. Many in the new government owe Murdoch a favour or two after he backed them in the election. In the coming months he’ll look to cash in those favours by extending his empire, weakening the rules against political bias, and pushing for further cuts to the BBC.

38 Degrees doesn’t take money from big business, political parties or government. We rely on donations to keep standing up to Murdoch and protecting public service broadcasting.  Please click here to donate now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-announcement

NOTES
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/strategy_review/index.shtml

Our BBC billboard ads

Over the last few weeks, thousands of us have taken action to tell the BBC Trust not to go ahead with their planned cuts to 6Music, Asian Network and the website.

We’ve now arrived at the critical final stage: next Tuesday, 25th May is the final day of the BBC Trust’s consultation period. On the day, we’re working with the National Union of Journalists and the campaigns to save 6Music and the Asian Network to hold flashmobs outside BBC offices all around the UK. At 1pm we will make as much noise as possible to send our message loud and clear to BBC bosses, so bring a whistle, saxophone, drum or just your voice!

There are events planned in Leeds, London, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Bristol already, but if one of those isn’t close enough to you, then you can click here to set up your own on the 38 Degrees website: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-flashmobs/

Together, we’ve already taken action to make sure the BBC Trust knows we don’t want these cuts.  Tens of thousands of people have signed the save the BBC petition. Our billboards, paid for by thousands of people chipping in, went up around the country on 10th May. And we e-mailed hundreds of election candidates and asked them to pledge to protect the BBC and public broadcasting.

Now we need another big push to make sure we get our message across – click here to join in one of our BBC flashmobs: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-flashmobs/

Our billboards mean that the first message new MPs are going to get from us is that it is critical that we defend the BBC.  Over the last few days we’ve had lots of opportunities to see how important impartial news is.  Our billboards send a clear and loud message that it is us, not millionaire media owners, who should have the final say on the BBC.

Please help spread the message further and save the BBC.  If you haven’t signed the petition yet you can do so here and if you have, please ask your friends, family and colleagues to sign too.

Here’s the video of us outside the BBC Trust:

Here’s how the posters will look on the big billboards all around the UK:

Billboards will go up where BBC bosses can't miss them

Hundreds of members helped by making comments about the first design (which we shared on our blog and Facebook a few weeks ago), and the designers have taken their main comments on board, by making sure there was a way for everyone to join in as they want past the billboards and by ensuring that we mentioned the cuts that members were most concerned about: 6Music, Asian Network and the website.

Nobody working for the BBC will be able to miss our message: these huge billboards on the doorsteps of their offices will send a huge signal that thousands of us don’t want them to cut services like 6Music, Asian Network and the BBC website. By bringing together everyone taking action to stop the cuts, we’ll make it clear that we won’t stand by and let millionaire media owners dictate what happens to our BBC.

What do you think? How else can we make sure BBC bosses get our message?