The BBC is criminalising thousands of children and young people every year in its relentless quest to generate TV licence sales.
Worse still, despite official Ministry of Justice figures confirming that children as young as 10 have been convicted of TV licence evasion, the institutionally dishonest national broadcaster unashamedly denies the fact.
The BBC, as statutory Television Licensing Authority, retains full legal responsibility for all aspects of TV licence administration and enforcement. The BBC conducts its statutory function under the guise of TV Licensing.
Around 18,000 people under the age of 20 have been prosecuted in the last five years amid fears that the court action could be putting their futures at risk. Almost 500 children and young people aged between 10 and 17 were prosecuted for TV licence evasion between 2008 and 2016.
Our noble colleague Caroline Lévesque-Bartlett, who runs the popular End The BBC Licence Fee blog and associated campaign, recently brought this worrying information, contained within the Criminal Justice Statistics quarterly: December 2018, to the attention of the national media.
The news comes despite evidence that fewer than half of 16 to 24-year-olds watch the BBC on an average week, with many turning off the public service broadcaster in favour of streaming channels.
Andrew Bridgen, the recently re-elected Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire and a vociferous opponent of TV Licensing, said: "This could have a major impact on their life chances and their future employment prospects.
"Any involvement in a criminal prosecution is a bad start for young people. These statistics are deeply worrying for anyone concerned about the future of our younger generation."
Contradicting the official Government data, a TV Licensing spokesman denied that the organisation prosecuted children.
"Our policy is to prosecute people aged 18 or over. We have reviewed this issue before and found around 10 cases where someone aged 17 - but no younger - had been prosecuted, and tightened our systems further," the spokesman said.
In our considerable experience of TV Licensing it is more than happy to disregard policy, procedure and rule of law whenever it suits.
In this instance, we can safely believe the official Government statistics over the uncorroborated word of a TV Licensing PR harlot.
We wish all our readers, apart from those at the BBC and its TV Licensing contractors, a very enjoyable Christmas and New Year.
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1 comment:
Like all/most people who don't watch TV, I've had endless letters with threats of £1,000 fines, dates in court, 'you're breaking the law' and numerous threats of police search warrants. I'm currently on 'Investigation' (highlight in red for extra intimidation, not) number 20. I'd love to have BBC TVL and the Police turn up at my door with a search warrant; it will give me a 'two for the price of one' opportunity to dress down both sets of tyrants.
However, they aren't being very sporting as nothing ever happens with these puerile and churlish ultimatums. Come on BBC, play the game! But you don't have Reasonable Grounds do you? Oh dear, what a shame....Now jog on.
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