Patten hints at second term with BBC Trust

Lord Patten has hinted that he will seek a second term as chairman of the BBC Trust.

Despite several calls for him to step down in the wake of the Newsnight furore and the resignation as director general of George Entwistle, he told the annual conference of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer campaign in London yesterday that he wanted to “help the BBC face up to a digital future”.

“I’m 68. I hadn’t thought the job would be as exciting as it has turned out to be,” he told the conference, saying the three to four days per week role often felt as if it took up eight.

“I sometimes think that people who rubbish the BBC and put the boot in should be condemned to watch television and listen to radio in France, Germany, Italy, Spain or the US.

“Watch Fox News for a week and tell me you don’t think that the BBC has a strong moral
purpose.

“I’ll want to stay at the BBC as long as people think I can help to restore its reputation and to make it the really outstanding part of our creative industries that we know it to be.”

He also spoke in support of Mr Entwistle, suggesting the former director general had been the victim of character
assassination.

Lord Patten also said that information which the BBC received from the Pollard Review into the corporation’s journalistic standards would be published.

He repeated his view that the BBC’s top management needs shaking up and streamlining if the corporation is to get past the Newsnight and Jimmy Savile scandals.