VLV is delighted to announce that Lord Tony Hall CBE, former Director-General of the BBC, is to become the President of VLV. His expertise and respected voice will considerably help VLV represent the interests of citizens at a time when broadcasting in the UK faces considerable change.
Lord Hall said, ‘I’m both honoured and delighted to be President of the VLV. It’s an organisation that I’ve long admired. Its focus on high quality broadcasting and media has been both admirable and necessary. I know too from my own experience that people take what VLV says seriously. The next few years are going to be critical for all us who believe in decent, quality media. I look forward to working with you all to make sure our voice is heard loud and clear’.
Formerly Lord Hall was Chief Executive of the Royal Opera House, Deputy Chairman of Channel 4 and Chairman of Trustees of the National Gallery. He is currently also Chairman of the children’s social work charity Frontline and the film company Harder Than You Think. He is Vice-Chairman of London Philharmonic Orchestra and a Trustee of The National Trust, The Paul Hamlyn Foundation and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. He was made a life peer in 2010, sitting on the crossbenches in the House of Lords.
Tony believes that the BBC, and Public Service Broadcasting more broadly, are crucial elements of the nation’s infrastructure. At the VLV Spring conference he said, ‘Like many infrastructure issues, problems are often ignored until it’s too late and cracks have begun to show’. He believes that the BBC is suffering ‘a diminution by stealth’ – a slow, almost imperceptible, decline.
At the conference he made a number of recommendations: that BBC funding negotiations should be reformed, that the government should decide what we want from the BBC before setting its funding model and that the process of appointing the BBC Chair should be more transparent.
He said, ‘Amid the noise and mayhem of an increasingly polarised and fragmented world, every person, whoever they are, wherever they live, rich or poor, has a fundamental right to information on which they can base their lives; information and news that they can trust’.
Colin Browne, Chairman of VLV said, ‘We are are delighted that Lord Hall has agreed to become VLV President. VLV was established in 1983 by Jocelyn Hay to ensure that citizens in Britain have access to high quality public service broadcasting. We celebrate our 40th anniversary this year and I know Jocelyn would be delighted that Tony has agreed to join us to promote the interests of the public in an increasingly commercial and fragmented broadcasting environment.’
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