James Harding , the former director of BBC News, has made an impassioned plea for the corporation to become more independent of government, thereby pivoting to being the “People’s Platform.”

As more and more questions are posed about BBC independence and with 2027 charter renewal on the horizon, Harding delivered a blueprint to “depoliticize the BBC” and “change how appointments are made and budgets are set.”

“The BBC chair and board of directors should be chosen, not by the Prime Minister, but by the board itself and then, like other such organisations, with the approval of [regulator] Ofcom,” said Harding. “The BBC will attract more and better people to apply for those jobs if they don’t feel like the appointment is a political stitch-up.”

Harding was delivering the annual MacTa

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