Dyke told: Stop being like Murdoch
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Your support makes all the difference.The film maker Lord Puttnam issued a strong warning yesterday to Greg Dyke, the director general of the BBC, to be "more Mandela than Murdoch" and to resist abusing the BBC's power with his aggressive commercial instincts.
With the BBC facing angry claims that it is producing populist television at the expense of quality programmies, Lord Puttnam added his voice to those demanding that the BBC do more to fulfil its public-service broadcasting remit.
Speaking at the Edinburgh Television Festival, the Labour peer sent this message to Mr Dyke: "Be generous with your power and wise with your responsibilities. They are different to those you see as your competitors. Be more Mandela than Murdoch, dare I say it, more Blair than Bush. It would be all too easy to clumsily turn everyone's favourite Auntie into an organisation that displayed many of the traits of an abusive uncle."
The peer is concerned that the BBC could be abusing its position by demanding intellectual rights to programmes made for it by independent producers.
He also said that the BBC should be overseen by Ofcom, a proposed industry regulator, instead of by its governors.
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