Check EXACTLY what the BBC's charter and relevant statute say.

Since its establishment the BBC has been a valuable resource, admired throughout the world.

The BBC has since Thatcher been steadily muzzled and now IMHO could not in any way be said to be left-leaning, so to speak of the BBC/Guardian axis is folly.

The pathway to a balanced set of media is to prevent media concentrations. It was Thatcher who started the roll away from that, not initially as an assault on the BBC but one on Thames TV for broadcasting "Death on the Rock".

The best way forward for the media would be to return to the early days of Channel 4 (when there were truly regional TV companies) and tot he regulatory system that was dismantled by Thatcher - maybe adding Channel 5.

What is most necessary is media plurality. Then the media (print media and broadcast ones) can be made subject to law as distinct from political muzzling. Since as a matter of economic theory the greater capital tends to drive out the lesser, regulation of concentration is essential.

This story is one of the world's oldest constitutional democracy battling for its life. Small wonder it is a big story.