The most serious threat to free speech and the public’s “right to know” comes from politicians. This is not a reference to the ongoing row over the post-Leveson regulation of the press, however, but the even more important issue of the freedom of the BBC. Though the corporation’s reputation was damaged by the Jimmy Savile affair, BBC coverage is still the preferred way of keeping up with the news for millions of people, many of whom have stopped reading newspapers altogether. Yet the BBC’s editorial integrity is under threat from disgruntled MPs, including the Tory party chairman Grant Shapps. He has raised the possibility that the licence fee on which the BBC depends should be reduced, or part of it creamed off for other purposes, because of the alleged bias