Good news for fans of swine flu. According to today's Times, if a pandemic forces the closure of schools the Government could invoke an emergency clause in the BBC's charter forcing it to 'broadcast or otherwise distribute any announcement or other programme'.
The report goes on to state that the schedules could be cleared in order to make way for educational programming. This, I thought, was one of the three key tenets of the Royal Charter anyway. Unfortunately it doesn't go on to say under what catastrophe we can expect the Corporation to deliver on its other two founding principles - 'to entertain' and 'to inform'. Nuclear armageddon perhaps?
Predictably the BBC is resistant to the move, claiming that it threatens its editorial independence so if the unlikely happens and swine flu results in widespread disruption to the education system don't expect the Corporation to comply with the request.
Well why would you want to disrupt editorial independence so ably displayed by fodder such as Young, Dumb and Living Off Mum, Eggheads and Cash in the Celebrity Attic in order to educate people?
