Channel 4 given EU blessing as it was to be a ‘minority language supporting’ TV Channel

There has been a great deal of anger over perceived bias by Channel 4 against Brexiteers. For example Channel 4 falsely claimed Boris Johnson called immigrants ‘people of colour’ in a speech rather than ‘people of talent’. This is a grab of the wrongly captioned version, which mistakenly reports him saying ‘people of colour’

Insiders say that the anti-Brexit, anti-Trump stance of Channel 4 News has caused such concern among some of its 26 journalists that representations have been made to the board of ITN, which produces the programme.

A source said: ‘Representations from senior journalists have been made to ITN’s top brass because Channel 4 News has stopped pretending to be balanced when it comes to anything to do with Brexit or Donald Trump or the Conservatives in general. Why does ITN allow it?’

Now one of our researchers has been extremely busy and we can reveal that Channel 4 gets its favourable status through an EU directive on state aid. Unlike the BBC Channel 4 is ‘commercially funded’ in that it sells advertising and programming to generate revenue, however they are a publicly owned body and provided with a ‘financial safety net’ by the Government. This would of course fall foul of EU state aid rules but as you can see below it was their support for ‘minority language’ that allowed it to bypass these laws.

Boris Johnson has hinted today that re the Licence Fee ‘we will take a look at it’ but fundamentally will anything change when Channel 4 is still allowed to behave the way it does with impunity?

COMMISSION APPROVES UNDER STATE AID RULES NEW UK FUNDING FOR CHANNEL 4 AND AID FOR MINORITY LANGUAGE TV PROGRAMME

 

03/07/1991

   The  Commission has decided to approve the new funding  arrangements  for
   the  independent  British  television station  Channel  4.  It  has  also
   approved  two  UK  schemes for supporting the  production  of  television
   programmes in two minority languages, Welsh and Gaelic.
   Channel 4 is to be given a financial safety net guaranteeing it a certain
   advertising  revenue.  The intention is to avoid the danger that  head-on
   competition for advertising with Channel 3 (ITV) might dilute the quality
   of  its broadcasts.  The Commission considers the measures to support  TV
   programming of quality and in minority languages as fully in keeping with
   the Community's broadcasting policy.