The BBC’s charter renewal and Licence Fee is being decided. The broadcaster’s future is now in the hands of a Conservative government. WGGB is campaigning for a strong, independent and properly-funded BBC so it can carry out its duties as a public service broadcaster and protect quality scripted drama and comedy on TV and radio and the broader cultural role it plays with its orchestras and Open University.

WGGB, together with the Federation of Entertainment Unions (FEU), is campaigning for a BBC which concentrates its resources on programming rather than executive pay, has transparent governance, union representation on the board, an end to the bullying culture and a commitment to increased diversity among the staff and the programmes it produces. We want to ensure the BBC can continue to provide quality scripted drama to suit all types and ages of audiences.

We need to defend the Licence Fee as a means of funding the BBC and make sure the year-on-year cuts, which have severely wounded one of the world’s most respected broadcasting organisations, are stemmed. We need to support our members working at the BBC, but we must also defend the BBC’s independence from attacks from the right and the lobbying of Rupert Murdoch and other commercial media who will be doing their utmost to see the BBC diminished and privatised.

We held an event in Parliament to launch the BBC Love It Or Lose It campaign with an alliance of organisations on Wednesday 10 June 2015. On the same day, we held a lobby of MPs and a drop-in session for MPs and peers to brief them on the campaign. There was also a public meeting to launch Broadcast magazine’s Backing the BBC campaign, which WGGB and many of our high-profile members are supporting.

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