IBT lobbies Government, broadcasters and regulators to promote high quality television and online  coverage of the developing world, its people and the issues which affect them.

Our lobbying work has produced significant results. The new BBC Charter, published at the end of 2006 marked the culmination of a lengthy IBT campaign. Under the new Charter, which runs  until 2016, the BBC will have six key purposes, one of which is ´to bring the world to the UK.´ This was not in early drafts of the Charter.

Channel 4 has also announced a new set of purposes one of which is ‘to challenge people to see the world differently’. We’re delighted that the Channel has made internationalism central to its vision for the future.

In 2008,  we´ve been involved in a number of consultations:
Ofcom, the communications regulator, has launched a major consultation looking at the future of public service broadcasting. We’ve argued that PSB needs to be reinvented for the globalised and interconnected world in which we live, so that internationalism is genuinely at the heart of it. We’ve also argued that public service content online needs to be more clearly focused on enabling UK citizens to become active global citizens.

Before that, the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee launched its own inquiry into public service broadcasting, Ofcom examined the future of children’s programming and also the future of Channel 4. IBT  submitted evidence to all these inquiries on behalf of our membership. We’ve argued that the UK continues to need and benefit from a strong system of public service broadcasting and a plurality of providers (not just the BBC).

Our lobbying work has involved regular dialogue with both the BBC and Channel 4. We´ve been arguing that the BBC needs to be clearly committed to a more ambitious and innovative approach to international issues across all genres (not just news and current

affairs) and all channels (not just BBC4), and we’ve been encouraging Channel 4 to spell out its international vision and enhance its commitment in this area.

For more information about our lobbying activities, please contact our Head of Campaigns  Sophie Chalk