Leadership Quote by Tony Benn

Broadcasting shapes the stories a society tells itself about who it is and what matters. It sets agendas, frames public problems, and gives or withholds visibility. If such power sits only with professionals whose incentives are ratings, advertisers, or institutional loyalties, democratic life is narrowed. The line between informing and persuading can blur, and a public that thinks it is merely being entertained can be quietly steered.

Tony Benn, a democratic socialist who spent decades arguing that democracy should extend beyond the ballot box into workplaces and public institutions, applied the same logic to media. In Britain, debates over the BBC’s independence, commercial pressures on ITV, and the growing clout of press barons and later global media conglomerates showed how concentrated control can tilt coverage and limit pluralism. Benn saw that broadcasting is a public utility in cultural form: as essential to citizenship as education or access to a town square. If it is a public good, it needs public accountability and public participation.

The claim is not an attack on skillful journalism or production craft. It is a warning against leaving decisions about representation, access, and editorial priorities to a relatively small and often socially homogeneous group, however well intentioned. A healthier model invites viewers and listeners into the process: stronger public service mandates, independent oversight, transparent editorial standards, community media, and avenues for citizens to challenge and contribute to coverage.

The argument has only grown sharper in the age of platforms and streaming. Algorithms curate as surely as editors, and ownership has consolidated across television, film, and tech. The danger is no longer just overt censorship but quiet gatekeeping by commercial logic and opaque systems. Treating broadcasting as too important to leave to broadcasters is a call to widen the circle of control, insist on diversity of voices, and make media literacy and participation part of civic life, so that the public is not merely an audience but a partner in the story of democracy.