Dear Sir or Madam,

assuming this has bearing on your current review and in accordance with principles of good governance of a public corporation may I put forward the following criticisms of recent events viewed by the BBC.

Self reverential bias in "news" coverage.
While I fully understand the tragic events of the loss of the BBC camera man in Riyadh reported yesterday (June 6th), I find it extremely grating to have to listen to it as the main item of news at 10 pm on BBC 1. Not only did it it focus on the actual circumstances of the killing but we then had the unctious spectacle of both Tony Blair and Jack Straw testifying to the sanctity of the man. Prominant BBC journalists were then interviewed about the "tragedy".  I simply point out that had this been an engineer or businessman killed in Riyadh it would probably have been squeezed out by the cricket report.

The BBC have a staff magazine for this kind of thing, not a national news programme.

Proliferation of Digital Channels
The BBC has been in the forefront of technology and the advance of digitalisation of broadcast media. This has clearly cost a huge amount of money, but unlike the sorry saga of ITV digital where jobs presumably were lost and reputations folded, there is a distinct lack of accountability. I cannot receive any of the newer channels, which would sometimes be OK as their content appears strictly limited to somewhat niche audiences. However there are some programmes destined for a mainstream audience which are given their first run on BBC 3 and 4 (eg The Alan Clark Diaries, Little Britain). I suspect this gives some spurious credence to these minor channels but in truth merely annoys.

The license fee is a poll tax on the people. We have no representation, no control over the output or the costs of its production. The BBC needs constraint, control and a huge injection of commonsense.

yours

Mr Mark Davenport