‘My TV licence fee shouldn’t be used to compensate Donald Trump’

'My TV licence fee shouldn't be used to pay Trump'Mixed/interview

Transcript

00:00As Donald Trump's $1 billion lawsuit threat towards the BBC looms, the dispute has spilled

00:06over to the public, leaving TV license fee payers questioning whether their money could

00:11land in the US president's pocket. The editing of Trump's 6th of January 2021 speech in a

00:17Panorama programme triggered the resignation of Director General Tim Davey and Head of News

00:22Deborah Ternis. Over 40,000 people have backed a petition to prevent the public-funded corporation

00:29from awarding Trump damages for the edit, labelling it as inappropriate and against the ethos

00:34of public service broadcasting, while demanding that any compensation paid should be refunded

00:40to the TV license payers. Speaking exclusively to The Independent, Ian Fisher, who started

00:46the petition, explained more about the growing frustration among BBC TV license payers.

00:52I don't get any value whatsoever from the BBC, but I do watch and record live TV, so therefore

01:00by law, I'm required to pay that license fee. And therefore, any incident, any own goal,

01:08any open goal that BBC scores against themselves means that it's my money and other household's

01:14money that are paying for those old goals. I think it was just a frustration that made me start the

01:22petition. I didn't think, I expected a couple of hundred of like-minded people. Well, in excess of

01:2842,000 shows that it's an important topic. The themes are around the impartiality of the BBC,

01:35the worried about, you know, the fact that they have to pay it, and perhaps like me, they don't get any

01:42value from the BBC, and certainly not for the tune of £174.50 a year. On the one hand, for me, it seemed

01:51like another form of grifting for Donald Trump, but also, it also seems like an interference, an

01:58invasion into the impartiality of news media in the UK. I think the problem is that because of the

02:07Communications Act and the Royal Charter, and the fact that the BBC can follow non-payments up by

02:15criminal proceedings, and individuals can get a criminal record simply for not paying the TV license,

02:22I don't think there's any compulsion for them to do anything with the commercial, with commercial

02:30responsibility. They just rely on the fact that they'll get the money regardless. It was literally

02:36flying a kite, making a point. Trump is making a speculative claim against the BBC, and getting

02:49the BBC, or suggesting that the BBC should refund, is literally the same principle. There's no

02:57commercial compulsion for them, but if we say, give us the money back, it might make them think twice

03:06about reckless spending, or reckless decision making. Despite the legal threat, Trump may face

03:14difficulties in suing the corporation over the documentary, partly because it may not have been

03:19aired in the United States. The BBC is expected to apologize to the US president, with the

03:25corporation's board now seeking to appoint its next director general. The BBC has been approached for comment.