The former longtime director of news and current affairs at ITV has called for the protection of free-to-access impartial news to be treated as a “national priority” and not a “nice to have”.
Michael Jermey, who left ITV after 16 years as director of news and current affairs at the end of 2024, suggested several policy solutions for “sustaining and enhancing” independent and impartial broadcast news in the UK.
This included asking “should the big digital platforms, that benefit economically from news and other commercial public service content, help to pay for it?”
He also suggested that tax credits like those provided to film and high-end TV productions should be “extended to help with impartial, commercial news” from the commercial public service broadcasters (ITV, Channel 4 and Five).
Jermey was speaking at the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards in London on Wednesday night as he accepted the Outstanding Contribution Award.
He noted that a thriving broadcast news media environment in the UK has been “underpinned by an environment which was deliberately created to ensure that British viewers would have free access to excellent, impartial broadcast journalism” but that this “should not be taken for granted”.
He said there is currently a “commercially-driven explosion in choice” on TV and streaming platforms, specifically mentioning entertainment, sport and drama, but added that this “doesn’t do anything to guarantee that high quality, impartial broadcast news and current affairs will remain available free to every citizen.
“As the economics of television change and some of the traditional sources of revenue become much more uncertain, we need to find new ways to support the things we have always valued.
“There is a need for policy makers to take a strategic view of the sector as a whole and then take action to guarantee its future.”
Jermey called for action to be taken, including a “stable and robust funding mechanism for the BBC” and a permanent Royal Charter to protect it from political changes in mood.
He added that the commercial public service broadcasters also need to be “nurtured and assisted” to provide news and current affairs nationally and regionally.
Ofcom must make sure new powers in the Media Act are used to ensure PSB content is “prominently available to audiences of all ages, whatever platform they choose to use”, he said, and that platforms treat these broadcasters “fairly and don’t try to seek shares of their commercial revenues”.
Michael Jermey speech to the RTS Journalism Awards in full:
The 70-year success of television journalism in the UK has been underpinned by an environment which was deliberately created to ensure that British viewers would have free access to excellent, impartial broadcast journalism.
And it’s the vital importance of sustaining that environment, in the interests of democracy, that I want to address tonight.
The measures that created our broadcast ecology were introduced incrementally over years.
The television licence fee funding the BBC, the ITV Public Service Broadcasting licences, the creation of Channel 4 and then Five and the nurturing of the independent production sector alongside them, the commercial climate that assisted the launch of Sky News.
The environment created helped make this country an international centre of excellence for news and current affairs.
Our part of the industry – with its emphasis on impartiality, solid facts and eye-witness reporting — has helped underpin our democracy.
That’s not something that has happened in every country – not even in every western democracy.
We’ve seen this evening that the journalism is as good as ever – both nationally and in our vitally important regional programmes too.
BUT the environment, created and nurtured over decades should not be taken for granted.
In some ways we’re living in a golden age of television. It’s possible to pay to watch more entertainment, sport and drama than ever before.
But this positive, commercially driven explosion in choice doesn’t do anything to guarantee that high quality, impartial broadcast news and current affairs will remain available free to every citizen.
As the economics of television change and some of the traditional sources of revenue become much more uncertain, we need to find new ways to support the things we have always valued.
There is a need for policy makers to take a strategic view of the sector as a whole and then take action to guarantee its future.
First, there needs to be a stable and robust funding mechanism for the BBC, ensuring its journalism is properly supported. In my view it’s time, too, for the BBC to have a permanent Royal Charter as a first step to further insulate it from the vagaries of politics.
But, it’s equally important that the commercial Public Service Broadcasters– ITV, Channel 4 and Five — are nurtured and assisted in continuing to provide engaging, impartial news and current affairs. Not just at the national level but in the regions and nations too.
It’s important that the regulator, with the full backing of Government, takes a position that is unapologetically in favour of sustaining homegrown British Public Service Broadcasting. Even in the face of potential opposition from powerful international players – most of them based in the United States.
The regulator needs to make robust use of all the powers granted in the Media Act to ensure that PSB content is prominently available to audiences of all ages, whatever platform they choose to use. And it’s equally important that those platforms treat PSBs fairly and don’t try to seek shares of their commercial revenues. The regulator needs to be robust.
But policy makers should go further still and ask what more can they do to ensure free-to-watch impartial news and other PSB content continues to thrive in our rapidly changing world.
For example, should tax credits, currently offered for ‘high-end’ production, be extended to help with impartial, commercial news?
And — although I’m quite sure it would be unpopular in some quarters — should the big digital platforms, that benefit economically from news and other commercial public service content, help to pay for it?
Strong independent, impartial news and current affairs — of the sort we’ve seen tonight – should not be seen as an optional ‘nice to have’ but rather as one of the essential cornerstones of a healthy, informed democracy. Sustaining it and enhancing it over the decade ahead should be a national priority embraced by our industry, by an energetic and active regulator and by Government and Parliament.
I think that the work so many people in this room do serves a vital public purpose. I’m full of admiration for all you do. We’ve seen so much good, enterprising journalism tonight. There’s lots to be positive about.
But, we need to ensure, that more than 70 years after the first TV news broadcasts, we remain a country that can confidently guarantee that every viewer and citizen – whether they’re watching television or living in an entirely digital world — will continue to have free access to a range of high quality, independent and impartial broadcast journalism.
It’s a challenge that must be met. It’s important for viewers, for our society and for the future of our democracy. And democracy only thrives, when people who care about it, act to protect it.
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