Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has made another embarrassing gaffe — wrongly telling a radio host that Channel 5 was "privatised a small number of years ago".
Speaking about a government White Paper aimed at privatising Channel 4, the Conservative minister praised Channel 5 in an interview with LBC. She told presenter Iain Dale that Channel 5 had brought strong regional investment since it was "privatised".
Ms Dorries said: "Do you know who has done that really well since they were privatised a small number of years ago, I think it was three years ago, five years ago maybe? Channel 5. If you look at the amount of investment Channel 5 puts into the regions and how well Channel 5 has done since it was privatised, I think that's a model. I call Channel 5 a levelling-up broadcaster."
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But Pink News CEO Benjamin Cohen pointed out on Twitter: "I love how Nadine Dorries justifies privatising Channel 4 by claiming that Channel 5 was privatised 3 to 5 years ago. Channel 5 launched in 1997 as a private business as a result of a franchise auction but I guess you couldn’t expect the Culture Secretary to know this."
The minister responded: "Yes, I misspoke - it was 2014 when Viacom bought C5 - a public service broadcaster - resulting in increased private investment, not a few years ago! However, the substance of my point remains exactly the same. But, you nit pick away if that’s what makes you really happy."
Mr Cohen replied: "You stated 'privatised' twice. It was never publicly owned. This is not misspeaking. This is not understanding your brief at all. Can I ask would you like C4 to be US-owned like C5 then?"
Ms Dorries then accused Mr Cohen of having "no interest" in the sale of Channel 4, claiming he was only interested in "personally attacking" her. But Mr Cohen replied: "I do have an interest. I used to work for Channel 4 News and I’m the CEO of a UK-based digital media company reaching over 100 million users around the world with most of our users in the US... I’d also say, someone pointing out a huge factual error in what you said should have seen you humbly correcting yourself, rather than blocking and unblocking someone who literally runs one of the fastest growing businesses in the sector you seek to represent at cabinet."
It is not the first time Ms Dorries has shown a shaky grasp of a major broadcaster's model. When she was questioned about Channel 4's future during a select committee hearing last year, she falsely claimed the commercially funded channel was in “receipt of public money”.
Unveiling the White Paper, Ms Dorries said Channel 4's ownership model has “serious challenges” which restrict its growth and anyone “choosing to dismiss them” is “burying their head in the sand”. She told MPs that public ownership is holding the broadcaster back from “competing against streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon".
A press release on the White Paper says that consultation into Channel 4’s future attracted 56,293 responses. The government statement acknowledged that "a substantial number of consultation responses did not agree that there are challenges in the current TV broadcasting market that present barriers to a sustainable Channel 4 under public ownership". Several prominent Tories have spoken out against the plans including former culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who said: “I’m not in favour of it because I think that as it stands, Channel 4 provides competition to the BBC on what’s called public service broadcasting — the kinds of programmes that are not commercially viable — and I think it’d be a shame to lose that.”
Ms Dorries has also spoken about her desire to end the BBC licence fee and replace it with a new funding model after 2027. You can read more about that here.
