Outgoing BBC director general Tony Hall is expected to speak up about the role of public service broadcasters in the battle against fake news when he delivers the opening address of the Edinburgh TV festival on Monday.
“The forces of disinformation and social media tend to feed on fracture and drive polarization,” Hall is expected to say. “They’re often specifically designed to exploit division for commercial or political gain; to unsettle societies or undermine democracy.”
“What we do, as a PSB, is a force in the opposite direction.”
The BBC is part of the Trusted News Initiative that is setting up an early warning system against the spread of disinformation during the upcoming U.S. Presidential election.
“More and more, in the fake news world, truth is a priceless commodity in our societies,” Hall will say.
Hall is also expected to address the BBC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and also the killing of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement, saying that public service broadcasters are important for democracy.
“They inform us. They educate us,” he is expected to say.
One of the issues Hall is expected to address is how public service broadcasters like the BBC can stay relevant in the era of giant streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Hall is likely to point out the role the BBC plays in providing news, something that the streamers do not provide.
Given that this is his last major public appearance before he hands over the BBC reins to Tim Davie on Sept. 1, Hall is also not expected to shy away from controversies like executive pay and other issues and say that the BBC is “an organization transformed, inside and out.”