“We’re living in a time of Orwellian double-speak, where black is white and up is down. The government have consulted on this idea, people said it was a bad idea, and they’re going to steam ahead with it anyway.

“It’s madness. It’s an act of cultural vandalism. Do they think there’s going to be some sort of windfall from it? They’ll get a one-shot deal at most and then the value will be diminished. It makes no sense.”

..

“Channel 4 has a remit to be different from other channels, and it always has,” said Bailey. “It looks for new and interesting artists and writers. The news is the finest TV news we have in the country. Investigations, documentaries – it has been a powerhouse for all this stuff since its inception and it’ll be a terrible loss to the cultural life of Britain if it is privatised.

“And if it happens it doesn’t bode well for the arts, as once you start monetising assets like that then people running them make decisions about doing less of one thing and more of another just because it makes money. That starts polarising the brief around monetisation and that’s never a great direction to go for artists.”

(via Sunday Post)

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