A British-Indian has been picked by the U.K. Government to head the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as its next chair. Samir Shah, a 71-year-old former BBC non-executive director and media executive, was born in Aurangabad and moved to the U.K. in 1960. He will head the public broadcaster as it faces questions over its independence and financial challenges with the renewal of its charter.
The previous BBC chair, Richard Sharp, stepped down in June over his failure to disclose that he had helped arrange a £800,000 loan to former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The BBC Chair’s duties include overseeing the independence of the organisation.
Mr Shah, who has worked in media for over four decades and currently runs and owns Juniper TV, a media company, has connections to the Conservative Party. He was also on the U.K. government’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities which was established during the Boris Johnson administration in 2020, in connection with the Black Lives Matter movement and published a controversial report in March 2021. The report said that while racism exists in Britain, socio-economic factors, culture and religion, geography, family, affect opportunities more than the existence of racism.
Mr Shah will take over the reins of the Board as the BBC is facing £500 million in cost-cutting with higher costs and a two year freeze on its licensing fee, which constitutes most of its funding. The fee — paid by households and establishments — is unlikely to increase to reflect inflation, with the government pushing back against a hike of this magnitude. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak recently supported the BBC making savings and said it was appropriate that the broadcaster “cut its cloth appropriately”.
Apart from being the most widely-used source of news within the U.K., the BBC , through its World Service in 42 languages, also had a weekly audience of some 426 million globally, according to its own estimates in 2019. The BBC is responsible for guarding the editorial independence of its World Service and the BBC chair and U.K. Foreign Secretary (or their representatives) meet at least once a year to discuss the World Service’s performance against its stated objectives.
The British broadcaster had angered the Modi government in early 2023 after it aired 'India: The Modi Question', a two-part documentary which was deeply critical of the government’s relationship with India’s minorities, especially Muslims. The documentary, which was banned in India, also revealed that a British government report had held Prime Minister Narendra Modi responsible for the 2002 Gujarat riots. Within weeks of its screening, tax authorities raided the BBC's offices in Delhi and Mumbai. The government had denied any link between the raids and the documentary.
Mr Shah will have to face a cross-party parliamentary select committee next week before being formally appointed.
