The
Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation was created in 1963 under the Gibraltar Broadcasting
Corporation Ordinance to "maintain a sound and television broadcasting service as a
means of information, education and entertainment and to develop the service to the best
advantage and interest of Gibraltar".
The activities of the Corporation are controlled and governed by a
Board consisting of a Chairman and not more than seven members appointed by the Governor.
Subject only to any directions of the Governor-in-Council the Board is
responsible for the Corporation’s policy.
The Corporation appoints the General Manager and other staff to carry
out its policies and the Board is empowered to delegate any of their duties to their
employees except responsibility for policy. Within GBC the Board’s powers are
absolute.
The Chairman and Board thus work through their permanent staff, headed
by the General Manager, who are responsible to the Board.
Although the chief concern of the Board is undoubtedly broad policy,
once laid down it is left to the General Manager and senior staff, whom they appoint to
carry out as trustees of the public interest in broadcasting. In view of their ultimate
responsibility for everything that is broadcast, it is the Board’s duty to take an
active interest not only in the programmes, but also in the financial and staff
policies of the Corporation.
This is done through a number of sub-committees in which Board members
and senior staff participate in decisions relating to the treatment of political and
public affairs, finance and development, and programmes. A Religious Sub-Committee, in
which all the major denominations are represented, looks after religious matters related
to broadcasting.
As is well known, the Board of GBC is modelled on the BBC Board of
Governors: faithful to that model, Board Members are chosen for their prominence or
expertise in almost any field except broadcasting; their status as broadcasters is thus
put (at its most charitable) at no more than amateur.
The set-up has been described – in the case of the BBC – as
an extraordinary way to run a broadcasting organisation – no doubt the words apply
equally to GBC – yet it undoubtedly works; and no-one either here or in the United
Kingdom has yet thought of a better idea, although many have tried.
The system’s success may well be attributable to the fact that,
paradoxically, much of its strength lies precisely in what at first sight may appear to be
weaknesses.
Thus, there is the fact that Board members are not selected to
represent, still less to defend, any particular sectarian interest, shade of political
opinion, or trade union viewpoint, for example. This in practice results in greater
independence of thought and freedom of action than perhaps would be possible from a Board
composed of individuals owing loyalty to particular ideologies or power groups.
Not being themselves professionally qualified as broadcasters, Board
members are arguably well suited to the task of representing the views and requirements of
the general public who, after all, are not professionals either, and could, but for the
balancing effect of the Board, risk being subjected to the uncontrolled whims of the
professionals in what they saw and heard broadcast.
Striking the right balance therefore, between interfering with the
day-to-day work of the professional broadcasters, and exercising just the right degree of
control needed to ensure that the Board do not cease being masters of their own home, as
it were, is the delicate but crucial role the Chairman of GBC and his colleagues have to
discharge as guardians of the interests of the licence fee payers.
More particularly, maintaining the Corporation’s independence is
perhaps the most important specific responsibility of the Board of GBC.
Constitutionally standing between the Corporation and the Government,
the Chairman is the bridge between the two – and must ensure that the Corporation, in
spite of considerable financial dependence on the Government, is able to operate in
freedom and autonomy.
In this task the Board are greatly assisted by the fact that the
Government, as well as all sectors of public and political life in Gibraltar subscribe to
the idea that, even if it sometimes hurts, it is vital for the general wellbeing that the
Corporation should be allowed to go about its business as it thinks fit.
This does not mean of course that particular broadcasts do not
occasionally give rise to complaints from aggrieved parties; complaints there are and when
they arise have to be dealt with.
In dealing with accusations of imbalance, if not downright bias, and
similar grievances, the rule-of-thumb which states that if the complaints are fairly
evenly distributed across the spectrum of political and public opinion, the balance and
objectivity being achieved are probably about right, has proved a valuable one over the
years. This approach, pragmatic though it may appear to be, does not of course imply,
still less could it ever justify, complacency or indifference to complaints and, in this
respect, it may be fairly claimed that the Corporation always pays close attention when
complaints are received or criticism is levelled at it.
In finalising this brief description of the functions of the
Corporation, its Board, Management and Staff, and their positions relative to one another
and the outside world, it is perhaps worth underlining the fact that the
Corporation’s fundamental powers are functions and defined by law and that the Board
have to administer the GBC Ordinance as they find it, not as they or anyone else might
wish that it were.
Only the House of Assembly has the power to change the Ordinance and
the Governor-in-Council the Directions. This does not of course prevent anyone from
criticising GBC or giving it advice on anything it does or fails to do, but the Board is
there to govern GBC and are entirely responsible for what GBC does. Mechanisms exist for
pulling them up should they fail in their duty; it is important therefore that in the
conduct of day-to-day affairs GBC continues to operate in freedom and independence: this
is how the system was designed to work and this is how it must carry on working for the
general good.
