Channel 4

Channel Four Television Corporation is a publicly-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster. Informally known as Channel 4, it was launched in 1982 as Channel Four Television Company Limited and became an independent statutory corporation in 1993.

Channel 4 is governed by a board of executive and non-executive directors, who ensure the broadcaster adheres to its public service remit and financial responsibilities. UK media regulator Ofcom appoints the board’s members in agreement with Britain’s culture secretary. Channel 4’s annual sales stood at £938 million (US$ 1.4 billion) in 2014. The corporation’s business model hinges on social enterprise, setting it apart from other British broadcasters. Commercially-funded by advertising, it does not receive public funding like the BBC. It is run as a not-for-profit company, with surplus funds going back into content.

In September 2015, a leaked document revealed that Britain’s majority Conservative government has considered privatizing Channel 4.

@jonsnowC4 you may not be so proud of this I photographed this afternoon going into Downing St pic.twitter.com/ojxyvNsePt

— Political Pictures (@PoliticalPics) September 24, 2015

Those who back the sell-off claim it could slash up to £1bn off Britain’s budgetary deficit. The corporation’s chief executive David Abraham warned the move could reduce its programming budget by a third. It would also force Channel 4 to curb the content of its flagship investigative current affairs show Dispatches and scrap its prime time news bulletin presented by Jon Snow.

Channel 4 was established to create an alternative service to BBC1, BBC 2 and commercial broadcasting network ITV. Its public service remit is agreed by Britain’s parliament and enshrined in law. The broadcaster says these Ofcom-regulated duties form the fabric of its DNA.

Core to its remit is a requirement to stimulate debate, inspire change, provide a platform for alternative views, nurture new and existing talent, reflect cultural diversity and invest in experimental content. The corporation also says its role as a broadcaster is to champion innovation across TV, film and digital content. Channel 4 does not produce its programs in-house, but rather commissions them from over 300 independent production companies across the UK.

Channel 4’s content is critically acclaimed, and has earned many prestigious awards over the last decade. In 2014, the broadcaster pocketed BAFTA awards, a BT Information Security Journalism award, three Foreign Press Association awards, American Black Film Festival awards, Digital Media awards and more. Channel 4’s current affairs program Dispatches also has a strong reputation as an awards winner, and has become an institution in British broadcasting. Since its inception in 1987, Dispatches has made a series of provocative programs including Gaza: The Killing Zone (2003), Saving Africa’s Witch Children (2008), Inside Britain’s Israel Lobby (2009), Syria Across the Lines (2014),The Hunt for Britain’s Sex Gangs (2014) and How Councils Blow Your Millions (2015).

Channel 4’s flagship news program, Channel 4 News, is produced by Independent Television News (ITN), the biggest shareholder of which is ITV plc. It began airing in 1982. Although many view Channel 4 News as a welcome presence in an increasingly pro-establishment media landscape, some say the program’s criticism of UK-US foreign policy does not go far enough.

Veteran British journalist Jon Snow is widely respected for his role as Channel 4 News’ lead presenter. He is known for his quirky sense of style, and is the proud owner of a vast collection of colorful socks and ties.

Since joining Channel 4 News in 1989, Snow’s tenacious and ethical reporting has earned him many prestigious awards. In 2015, he accepted a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Fellowship for lifetime achievement.

According to a 1988 book, Snow reportedly shunned an offer by British intelligence services to spy on his co-workers in 1976. A senior ITN correspondent at the time, he was allegedly asked to hand over information about the Communist Party. The veteran journalist was later reportedly asked to spy on left-leaning colleagues working in TV but refused the advances, despite being offered secret tax-free payments directly into his bank account.

A self-confessed «public school pinko liberal,» Snow also declined an Order of the British Empire (OBE) on the grounds journalists shouldn’t «take honors from the authorities they are charged with reporting.»

He famously refused to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on air in 2010, branding viewers’ demands for him to do so as a form of «poppy fascism.»

In July 2014, in the midst of the grueling Gaza-Israel conflict, Snow probed then-Israeli PM spokesman Mark Regev (who is currently the Ambassador of Israel to the UK) about the Israel Defense Force’s killing of Palestinian children who had been playing on a beach in Gaza. Snow opened the interview by asking the diplomat how killing children on a beach offered protection to Israeli citizens. Regev conceded «it doesn’t.»

The Israeli diplomat later claimed Hamas, not Israel, was ultimately responsible for the missile that had killed the children. Snow responded by asking, «Why won’t you speak with Hamas directly? You haven’t got the courage.»

Although Channel 4’s content has long been celebrated as innovative and ground-breaking, some of the network’s programs have courted controversy over the years.

The network attracted a torrent of negative press in 1983 over its show ‘Minipops’, which featured children in adult dress mimicking pop stars. Right-wing tabloid paper the Daily Mail suggested the show was partially responsible for «slaying childhood,» while left-liberal Sunday broadsheet the Observer questioned whether it was appropriate to foist «sexual awareness» onto the show’s innocent performers. Despite drawing 2 million viewers, the show was axed after the first series concluded.

Channel 4’s surreal satire show ‘Brass Eye’, which first aired in 1997, was widely praised for its leftfield humor. However, its scathing attacks on current affairs news programming consistently raised eyebrows amid Britain’s conservative and liberal elites. The show was created by enigmatic British comedian Chris Morris and sought to highlight media hysteria and moral panic around contentious topics such as drugs, sex, and crime.

In one episode titled Paedogeddon! (2001), Morris broached the sensitive topic of pedophilia. The spoof documentary featured bogus CCTV footage of a supposed pedophile trying to seduce kids.

Among the episode’s most vocal critics were then-Home Secretary David Blunkett, then-Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell and then-Home Office minister Beverley Hughes, who denounced it as «unspeakably sick.» The program attracted 3,000 complaints but Britain’s then-media regulator the Independent Television Commission (ITC) ruled the program makers had the right to satirize child abuse. However, it demanded Channel 4 issue a formal apology for offending viewers and neglecting to offer on-air warnings before the program was aired.

Channel 4’s ‘Drugs Live: The Ecstasy Trial’ documentary (2012) also provoked widespread controversy. The two-part show, which was presented by Jon Snow, was lauded by the broadcaster as one of its «boldest projects yet.» While critics slammed it as little more than a ratings-grabbing advert for ecstasy, Channel 4 argued it was «a groundbreaking scientific study» which helped to investigate the impact of MDMA on the human brain.

At the time of airing, roughly 500,000 people in Britain were estimated to take ecstasy each week. Despite the show’s incendiary title, no one actually took the Class A drug live on air. Rather, viewers were treated to a 60 minute discussion, chaired by Snow and TV doctor Christian Jessen.

The trial, which was conducted on 25 volunteers, was funded by Channel 4 after Britain’s Medical Research Council refused to back it.

A second program, ‘Drugs Live: Cannabis on Trial,’ was broadcast in March 2015.

The 2014-2015 reality show ‘Benefits Street’ sparked widespread outcry from viewers. The first series was filmed on James Turner Street in Birmingham, UK, with the second filmed on Kingston Road in Stockton-on-Tees. During the airing of the first series Channel 4 and the media regulator Ofcom received hundreds of complaints, with some branding it «poverty porn». Viewers «inundated» law enforcement with messages over concerns that the program featured episodes of drug dealing and other criminal activity. It was later reported that participants in the documentary had received death threats on Twitter and that children from families involved with the show were being bullied at school.

The show also faced a backlash from people living in one of the areas where it was filmed.

An online petition calling on Channel 4 to axe the series over «the harm caused» attracted more than 60,000 signatures.

Ofcom later cleared the broadcaster of breaching any rules.

Another recent controversial documentary — ‘Immigration Street’ — was filmed in Derby Road, Southampton, as a follow-up to ‘Benefits Street’. However, the producers met with strong resistance from a number of local residents, including the hurling of various objects at the TV crew. The show provoked strong reactions on Twitter.

Why are @Channel4 making everyone turn on each other? Turn on the Nestle's and Starbucks of this world instead! #ImmigrationStreet

— Sophie Hewitt (@soph_hewitt) February 24, 2015

#ImmigrationStreet a documentary when the people you're documenting dont want to be documented. It belongs more to a media studies lecture

— Dash (@dscreationstv) February 24, 2015

#ImmigrationStreet exemplifed everything that is wrong with the modern media - controversy out of nothing in the pursuit of profit

— Andy Galloway (@AJGalloway6) February 24, 2015

The police were reportedly worried that the show could make Derby Road a target for far-right groups, and asked to view the series before it was broadcast.

After bagging the prestigious role of Channel 4 News editor in 2012, a delighted Ben de Pear said he hoped to continue the program’s tradition of challenging authority and holding power to account.

But Channel 4 News faced criticism under his stewardship in July 2014 over a soft interview with ex-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After Jon Snow queried her on a number of key issues, critics argued he should have challenged Clinton more stringently, particularly on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

UK media analysis website Media Lens noted Snow had missed a rare opportunity to probe Clinton on US foreign policy. «The interview was largely a series of soft questions, culminating in a cozy epilogue about Clinton looking forward to being a granny,» it said. Left-leaning political blogger John Hilley expressed a similar opinion, describing Clinton and Snow’s exchange as «a safely-moderated version [of what] passes for ‘probing journalism.’»