Do not privatise Channel 4!

Boris Johnson appears to be pursuing a private vendetta against any media that dares to pursue any form of investigative coverage of him and his Conservative government, from refusing to appear on Channel 4's climate change debate before the 2019 General Election to refusing to take part in a general election debate with Andrew Neil on the BBC and avoiding Radio 4's The Today Programme he now appears to be ready to threaten Channel 4's status as a public service broadcaster and sell it off, a step which previous Conservative governments have not considered or prioritised, the previous administraiton under Theresa May simply wanted Channel 4 to do more out in the regions and leave London, they didn't want to end the channel, but under Boris Johnson our public service media appears to be facing a witchhunt!

If Channel 4 were to be privatised it would become a plain vanilla commercial TV channel that would likely stop offering any content with any real edge behind it, some of the work shown on Channel 4 has become world leading in creativity, the highly successful Black Mirror series for example originated on Channel 4. but once privatised it would highly likely no longer be able to produce the sort of groundbreaking highly original television that pushes the boundaries which has defined its output since the channel's inception back in 1982, when it ironically launched under the Margaret Thatcher government. Many of its highly diverse greatest hits in drama such as Black Mirror, Peep Show, Shameless, Brookside & The End Of The .. World might well have not seen the light of day on a standard commercial channel with no public service remit let alone any of its significant investigative documentaries such as Dispatches or Unreported World or its comprehensive news coverage and original comedy such as Da Ali G Show, Trigger Happy TV Fresh Meat & The Inbetweeners. With the scaling back of BBC THREE, Channel 4 has also been an important source of UK originated TV for younger people who are now increasingly underserved, the channel is also often a very important alternative voice to the mainstream.

At a time of increasing dominance from big streaming providers such as Netflix & Amazon Prime Video in the UK media market, with government threats to the BBC & Channel 4 we could be in danger of losing a significant original asset of the UK's own, a channel that offers something for almost everyone from groundbreaking drama to edgy satirical comedy, dystopian sci-fi to coverage of minority sports, to lose Channel 4 as it is provided now would be a very significant loss in the UK's media landscape. Sign now if you want the UK government under Boris Johnson to lay their hands off Channel 4!