THE preferred candidate to take over from Lord Patten as head of the BBC Trust defended the licence fee during a hearing with MPs.
Businesswoman Rona Fairhead told MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee she was not "an establishment figure" and shrugged off reports she was offered the job because the Government wanted a woman in the role.
She said she had been approached by head-hunters and had not discussed her application with anyone in the Government, saying: "I felt the process was, for my mind, a standard process."
Ms Fairhead said the BBC's governance structure was "very complex," but added: "If I didn't think it was workable at all, I wouldn't have taken on the role."
She told MPs the licence fee was the "most appropriate way to fund" the corporation.
She said: "When I look at the current system on a licence fee basis, I think there are some very, very, significant benefits of the licence fee. It ensures independence, it ensures a universal service for a universal fee and I think it ensures creative freedom."
The former chief executive of the Financial Times group is the Government's "preferred candidate" to head up the Trust, replacing Lord Patten who stood down in May.
Ms Fairhead said there was "very little doubt" the BBC "has had a tough time over recent years" but it remained "a vitally important institution in the UK."
She refused to comment on whether her immediate predecessor, a former Conservative MP, had done a good job and said she had never "been politically active."
She told MPs her husband had been a Conservative councillor, adding: "But it's not my husband applying for this role, it's myself."
Ms Fairhead, who confirmed she received a pay-off of more than £1 million when she left her previous role at Pearson, said criticism of excessive pay-offs at the BBC had been "legitimate."
The corporation has been heavily criticised over excessive payouts given to senior staff on leaving.
Ms Fairhead said her pay-off was "clearly a lot of money", adding: "I'm not going to apologise that I came from the private sector but I think when you're in the public sector world you have to look at funding through a different lens."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article