BBC World Service and British Council

Viscount Colville of Culross Excerpts

Thursday 10th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Colville of Culross (CB)]

My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lord Alton for securing this debate. I declare an interest as a producer at the BBC.

Noble Lords know the great reach of the World Service but I have my own experience. I was filming with the Evenki reindeer nomads in Siberia, 1,000 miles north of the Arctic circle. One evening, the young blades were going to take us to their nomad camp. It was supposed to be a three-hour journey. Unfortunately, they got a bit lost and it turned into a six-hour journey. The temperature was a little parky—minus 46 degrees. When finally we arrived at the camp, you can imagine our relief when we were shown our tent. Inside, warming the tent, was a marvellous gummy old Evenki lady who was chewing reindeer ligament to make it into thread for sewing. She looked at us and said, “I am so very pleased to meet the BBC. I have listened to you all my life. I have listened to your services through communism, through the chaos of democracy and through the autocracy of Putin. It shaped my view of the world. It shaped my view of my country”. I found that moving and very warming, literally.

Many noble Lords have spoken of the extraordinary work done by the World Service to project soft British power across the world and to shine a bright light of truth in places where it is being smothered by darkness and lies. I want to talk about the extraordinary work of my colleagues in the Russian and Ukrainian service of the BBC, who have seen the biggest audience increase of any service this year, to 14.5 million visitors monthly. It is not surprising as the Russian broadcast media has almost completely been taken over by government supporters pumping out nationalism and anti-western sentiment.

Earlier this year, when the Russian Government annexed Crimea, the anchor on the main Russian news announced that Americans must not forget that Russia can turn them to dust in 10 minutes. That was the anchor, not the Defence Minister or a nationalist. However, he has a point. Russia has a nuclear arsenal, an increasingly disciplined and well equipped army and a leader who appears to be prepared to attack its neighbours.

One of the great casualties of this year’s events in Ukraine, as in so many other conflicts, has been truth. The people of the Russia and Ukraine need disinterested news reporting to understand what is happening in their countries, and the BBC is providing that. I cite an example. In May this year, a bus carrying separatist troops was attacked outside Donetsk airport, and a number of separatists were killed. On that day’s evening news the Russians claimed a Red Cross vehicle carrying injured separatists to hospital had been hit by Ukrainian jets and 30 people killed. A Russian website even Photoshopped a picture of the Red Cross symbol onto the side of the vehicle. The BBC simply showed a picture of the vehicle, which did not have the Red Cross symbol on it. It reported that a vehicle with separatists on board had been attacked, it was not known how many were dead, and it was not known at that moment who had attacked them. The values of BBC journalism mean that reporters do not just say what they know but, equally importantly, say what they do not know. However, it is not just what is reported; it is also the tone and words used to report, which is so crucial. The Russians call the fighters in eastern Ukraine “supporters of federalism” and the Ukrainian media call them “terrorists”, while the BBC simply calls them “separatists”.

The inclusion of World Service funding in the licence fee means that whatever comes out of the charter discussions will affect it. We are told that another freeze in the licence fee would be a brilliant outcome, an improvement on the threatened move to a subscription service, which is being talked about. I ask the Minister to make sure that the funding is protected. People ask me why the licence fee payers of Britain should pay for the rest of the world to get the BBC when we do not benefit. In fact, World Service reporting increasingly affects the BBC journalism we receive in this country. Journalists from the World Service are used to report on our main news broadcasts in Britain. Last week, for instance, when there was the attack on Slavyansk in eastern Ukraine, there were no main BBC reporters present. The World Service reporters were the only people there. If you cut them you will also cut the news service that we receive here.

The BBC World Service is a global treasure which must be guarded and nurtured. I am so very proud to be the citizen of a country that supports an organisation transmitting what I see as British values: truth, free speech and democracy.

Economy: Culture and the Arts

Viscount Colville of Culross Excerpts

Thursday 13th June 2013 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Colville of Culross]

I, too, would like to congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Wheatcroft, on securing this moment for us to celebrate culture and the arts in this country. I declare an interest as a director of the BBC in the history and science departments.

I want to concentrate on a very specific area of culture, film and television, which have already been mentioned by the noble Lords, Lord Puttnam and Lord Grade. As they both said, they are world-beating sectors of the economy, and they run a rare trade surplus. “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows—Part 2”, “The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” and “The King’s Speech” have been the most successful British films worldwide. I am sure that many noble Lords have enjoyed watching them as much as I have.

The industry has been very dynamic in attracting foreign and domestic investment. Last year, Warner Bros opened the £100 million Leavesden studios with great studio space and workshop facilities, while Pinewood Studios has submitted a £200 million plan to double its filming facilities, which it says could create up to 3,000 new jobs in the industry. We are also seeing a flurry or cluster of television and film industries in the English regions, and also in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in an industry that has been traditionally based in London and the south-east. This must be seen by everybody as a great British success story.

However, I am concerned that the British Film Institute, the body which gives funds to the regional film development bodies and is responsible for encouraging exports of the film industry, is being severely constrained by a series of savage cuts made over the past few years. Most of its funding comes from a grant in aid direct from government, although the lottery also contributes valuable funds. In 2010, it was announced that the institute would have a 15% cut over four years; now it has been told that it has another cut of 2% and another one of 1% next year. Nick Mason Pearson, head of public affairs at the BFI, said that,

“any further cuts will have a seriously damaging effect on our ability to support our partners that help us deliver across the UK. That threatens the position of film as a whole and thus the economy”.

Creative England, which is responsible for investment in the development of the creative sectors in the regions, is facing a cut of over 40% of film investment outside London. As most private investment goes to London, we are once again seeing a move away from the regions back to London, which seems ironic at a time when so much political attention is going towards trying to create regional economic development in this country. I echo the words of the noble Lord, Lord Puttnam, that I would like the Minister to see whether he can push for a greater allocation of lottery funds to support film across the UK.

The Government may feel that the cuts in the BFI are fine, because they have done a very good job in extending the film tax relief benefit across the industry to cover film production money spent in this country. That has been rolled out this April to cover the high end of television animation and video game production. Despite this extraordinary support, parts of the industry are suffering. The noble Baroness, Lady Kennedy, mentioned the visual effects industry, which is based in Soho, in London, and after Hollywood is seen as world beating. It houses four of the largest visual effects companies, and is trusted globally for the ability to deliver complex sequences with cutting edge technology for new films. However, a number of these houses are relocating to Canada, which has extremely generous post-production incentives in place specifically aimed at attracting their business. One reason for this seems to be that there is an arbitrary 80% limit on the film tax relief, which particularly affects those visual effects houses, because they have become very much at the end of the spend on film production. It has been imposed by the EU Commission, but it is open for discussion in the new EU cinema communications consultation document. I know that the Government have tried to increase the limit but have been blocked by the EU competition commissioner; I ask them to redouble their efforts to ensure that all the film spend in this country is protected. It seems not to be in the interests of either Britain or the EU that our visual effects houses are relocating to North America, with the consequent loss to our economy and our global reputation.

The success of the film industry has been reflected in our other great media success story, television, with an increase in export in 2011 of 9%. The greatest market is North America, but exports to the rest of the world went up by 34%, and all the surveys show that British creativity is the most important factor driving the UK’s export success. It is a great story and we must go flat out to build on it.

I believe that the Government could still do more to promote television exports. I fear that at the highest level trade missions, the creative industries are not represented nearly strongly enough. On the Prime Minister’s recent trip to India, of the leaders of 40 British companies who accompanied him only one, Premier League, was from the creative industries. Will the Minister ensure that the Government promote one of the greatest economic success stories at the highest level to ensure that the export potential of our companies can be maximised in the future?

I am very proud to have spent my career in the creative industries. They are great centres of international, cultural and economic excellence. We must do everything we can to ensure that we continue to be the world beaters, entertaining and enthralling billions across the globe.