Broadcaster Charles Guard has ridiculed the recommendations of a select committee on public service media.

Mr Guard, who is an expert on Manx history and director at Manx Radio, criticised the report and called it ’an assault on independent free speech’.

The committee, chaired by Dr Alex Allinson MHK, has made 11 recommendations, which will be laid before Tynwald next week (Tuesday, November 20).

It calls for an assessment to be made of the long term cost and benefit of Broadcasting House and for the government to negotiate with the BBC to seek an increase in financial support or output.

Mr Guard said: ’Seeking more money is probably worth trying, but are we so bankrupt in the Isle of Man that we can’t afford to run our own basic services?’

’I sat through over 70 Tynwald sittings when I did Mandate and I have lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard people say we’re going to get more money from the BBC.

’The amount of money given to Manx Radio is a fraction of what the government give to, for example, Manx National Heritage.

’They either want a Manx public broadcaster or they don’t, but this report will totally dismantle it.

’This is an assault on independent free speech because these recommendations actually encourage more political interference.’

The committee suggests that the island should ’leapfrog’ DAB radio in favour of FM and internet based infrastructure, that Manx Radio should budget for a surplus each year and for the Office of Fair Trading to assess whether Manx Radio has an unfair competitive impact on radio advertising.

Its recommendations also include altering the definition of public service broadcasting to ’distinguish between mandatory and discretionary components’.

In practice, this would make the news mandatory and entertainment would be discretionary.

Mr Guard said: ’Public broadcasters are there to inform and entertain, can you imagine the BBC without Have I Got News For You or The Archers?

’One has to ask, why change it when the definitions have been acceptable for decades?

’The Council of Europe has defined it and Tynwald signed up to that definition in 2014, but of course this is a new house, so they’ve probably all forgotten.’