Julian Knight and the BBC both under scrutiny

I was dismayed by the reported views of Julian Knight MP, chair-elect of the Commons culture select committee (Report, 15 February ). He said that journalists at the BBC needed to “reflect Britishness, rather than what they [at the BBC] perceive as Britishness”.

As a former BBC journalist himself, he should know that his ex-colleagues’ job is to report honestly, truthfully, with common sense and without fear or favour. That, on the whole, and in the face of ill-informed and ill-intentioned attack from the Cummings-Johnson government, is what they manage to do, and for a vast range of radio, television and online outlets.

Their job is not to reflect anything. Not Britishness, not “the country” (whatever that means) and not the views of any special interest group be it political, economic, social, religious or other. The very idea that they should be required to do that is – and there is no other word for it – soviet. Mr Knight would have done better to give more thought to the subject before sharing his views with your media editor.
Graham Webb
Saint-Mandé, Paris, France

• Julian Knight should forget all the other Julians he’s working alongside and concentrate on providing an explanation to justify why he thinks the BBC and not the government should be responsible for providing free licences for over-75s.

It was nice to learn that Knight hails from a BBC/journalistic tradition so more than most should appreciate that accepting the decriminalisation of refusal to pay the licence fee is just a mean government-driven trick to compromise BBC finances and stymie its future development in a very competitive field. Admittedly he probably wouldn’t stay long in his post, but he’s in an influential position now and should be doing the right thing. which is to simply refuse to play the government’s game to punish the BBC. And, of course, damn the consequences.
Gary Bennett
Exeter

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