Academic Michael Lyons named BBC chairman
By Tim Castle
LONDON, April 5 (Reuters) - Michael Lyons, a former academic and local government boss, was named as chairman of the BBC on Thursday.
He will head the BBC Trust, a new body designed to improve governance of the public broadcaster in the wake of a judicial inquiry that savaged part of its Iraq war coverage.
The appointment was formally made by Queen Elizabeth and was announced by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Downing Street office.
"It is a great privilege to be appointed chairman," Lyons said in a statement. "I will never lose sight of the public's core expectations of editorial independence and quality programmes across television, radio and the Internet."
Lyons, 57, a former chief executive of Birmingham City Council who was also Professor of Public Policy at Birmingham University, has little experience of broadcasting.
Other more experienced candidates such as film producer Lord Putnam and broadcaster David Dimbleby ruled themselves out of the running in advance.
But the new 140,000 pounds-a-year job will require Lyons to play more of a regulatory role than previous chairmen who were closer to BBC management and had some input over editorial matters.
Lyons is also regarded as being close to Chancellor Gordon Brown, a potential plus in future negotiations over the level of the licence fee paid by viewers that provides most of the broadcaster's income.
The BBC faces a 2 billion pound gap in its finances following a lower than anticipated six-year settlement that will see the licence fee rise from 131.50 pounds now to 151.50 pounds in 2012.
Lyons replaces Michael Grade who left to join commercial broadcaster ITV last November.
The opposition Conservatives criticised his appointment.
"That yet another person with close links to Gordon Brown has landed such a key job -- and with limited broadcasting experience -- seems to add to the unease that the Chancellor is placing his people in positions of authority," Conservative Media Spokesman Hugo Swire told The Independent newspaper.
Lyons last month completed a three-year review of local property taxes in England, recommending new charging bands for people in the most expensive houses.
The BBC Trust replaced the broadcaster's board of governors in January, tasked with protecting the BBC's independence and representing licence-payers' interests following a damaging row with Blair over its coverage of the Iraq war. Judge Lord Hutton exonerated Blair but lambasted the BBC in a 2003 probe into the death of British scientist David Kelly who committed suicide after being revealed as the source of a BBC radio report that officials hyped Iraq's weapons threat. Lyons was also recently the acting chairman of the Audit Commission, and has been the chief executive of councils in Nottinghamshire and Wolverhampton.
He was knighted for services to local government in 2000.
((editing by Steve Addison; tim.castle@reuters.com; +44 207 542 7947)) Keywords: BRITAIN BBC/
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