Puttnam: Channel 4 remit 'isn't fit for purpose'

The deputy chairman of Channel 4, Lord Puttnam, has said that the Big Brother controversy will not help the channel fight against privatisation and is calling for a review of its public service remit.

Reports in the past few weeks have suggested incoming Prime Minister Gordon Brown may consider privatising Channel 4.

Speaking to The Guardian at the Hay Festival, he said that Channel 4 needed a tighter remit to make sure its programme makers were responsible as well as challenging and controversial, adding that a review would help rebuild the broadcaster's reputation.

Lord Puttnam said of the channel's remit, which was written in the early 1980s: "It clearly isn't fit for purpose in today's multichannel world."

Of the Ofcom report on Celebrity Big Brother and the channel's internal review, Lord Puttnam said: "I think the board acted correctly and proportionately, I think we've been rigorous about what needs to be done to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again."

Though elsewhere Lord Puttnam was critical of the channel, saying he wished the controversial documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle "hadn't happened." The documentary sort to expose flaws in widely held beliefs about climate change. Lord Puttnam chairs a parliamentary committee on climate change.