When Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries is asked by the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Committee why she won't go on Channel 4 News to answer questions about why she wants to privatise it, she answers peevishly: "It's my right to do so... which media outlet I choose to appear on is my choice."

Her choice. 

I'm wondering where our choice comes into all this.

We, the people who own Channel 4. We the viewing public who want to keep Channel 4. We who will be most affected by its loss. All of the very many who, in mistaken good faith, responded to the consultation - all 96% of the tens of thousands with the knowledge, experience, skills, understanding and know how that create the conditions for a successful, sustainable, beloved public broadcaster which costs the public nothing.

Public opinion and professional opinion the length and breadth of the country are overwhelming against the sell-off.

No one wants this and Nadine Dorries is going ahead anyway. She thinks it's her right not to answer questions on Channel 4 News even though the viewers of Channel 4 News will be so affected.

Is it her right to go ahead with the privatisation of Channel 4 when the intention was not on the manifesto, when the consultation yielded an overwhelming majority of those against the idea, when petitions from the general public like this one are stating plainly that we don't want it?

This is not her right.  This is not democratic.

She is not representing us.

Who exactly is she representing here?

She quotes Netflix as one of the tech giants that Channel 4 needs to be in competition with.  The Culture Secretary was not aware, when answering question from the Committee, that she shouldn't be sharing her Netflix account with other households around the country, just like she wasn't aware that Channel 5 was not privatised, just like she wasn't aware Channel 4 wasn't "in receipt of taxpayers money." She doesn't seem to have clear knowledge of any of the media models she is citing. She seems to have neither the understanding nor the mandate to go ahead with this. Why then?

Is it Nadine Dorries' right to privatise Channel 4?

No, it is not.

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