Your country needs you

Dear
John
,

Have you seen the news? The government is attacking our BBC. They plan to "whack" it by removing its funding source, the Sunday Times reported yesterday.

I’m writing to ask for your help.

Will you donate £5 a month so we can launch a brand new campaign to defend the BBC from Dominic Cummings?

We need you to defend our BBC - and our democracy.
Yes I'll donate £5 a month to defend the BBC ([link removed])
The BBC is not perfect. No institution is. But if we don’t defend it, we’ll end up with nothing but Facebook and a Fox News style media, which will damage our democracy.

The BBC is a proud British treasure with world class programmes, from Eastenders to Match of the Day, from Planet Earth to the World Service.

Now, Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings want to dismantle it. We know that Cummings has called for ‘the end of the BBC’ and he thinks it is the ‘mortal enemy’ of the Conservative Party - but the BBC is everyone's to protect.

That’s why this year - as well as ramping up the pressure on the NHS and railway, and keeping public ownership on the agenda - a new campaign is needed, for a BETTER BBC that really does belong to the people.
We need to raise £1000 a month to make this campaign possible. If you donate £5 a month, and 199 others join you, we can defend our BBC and our democracy.
Yes I'll make it happen ([link removed])
If you’re angry with the BBC, you’re not alone. Here are some of your comments from our recent survey.

“The media needs to be governed by democratic rules and brought to task when they tell lies and twisted truths”

“BBC needs to be transformed. It is not "our BBC" at present. Quite the reverse.”

The solution? We need a BBC that is more democratic, more accountable to the public, more diverse, with strong reporting from around the country, not just led by London.

Right now, the BBC’s board is handpicked by government. We need a BBC that works for you and me.

Your donation of £5 a month will make it possible to fight for the BBC this country desperately needs. That's just £1.15 a week to stand up for the BBC and make it better.
Donate now ([link removed])
The government has launched a ridiculously quick, reckless consultation on the BBC licence fee. The clock is ticking, we haven’t got long to respond.

The government is playing a dangerous game, trying to kill the funding model of a 100 year old public service in a few short weeks.

The government says their mission is attack, and they're attacking now.

That’s why the deadline for this fundraiser is this Sunday 23rd February. We've got no time to lose!
I'll stand up against Dominic Cummings ([link removed])
This is urgent. We need to get on the front foot with this. Until we have a media that works for us, it’ll be hard to win anything else.

The conversation about the BBC is happening right now, whether we like it or not. The challenge is to win back our BBC and make it better.

With your donation, we'll be able to
* Build the biggest, broadest coalition possible to defend the BBC. We’ve already started conversations with high profile journalists, unions and media reform campaigners. This campaign will be much bigger than We Own It. It needs to unite people from left and right to defend our BBC
* Get high profile journalists and celebrities on board to defend our BBC
* Shock the government with a huge mass response to their consultation
* Organise attention grabbing stunts and media work to get our story out there - the BBC belongs to the people and we will defend it from this government meddling and attack!
* Call for and develop proposals for fair funding and more public accountability in the BBC - hand in hand with media reform campaigners. It’s not perfect but we’ll fight to make it better, not to undermine it

Once we've got your support, we’ll go ahead and launch asap! We'll let you know exactly how we plan to fight and win. Your donation is vital for us to reach the target of £1000 a month / £12,000 a year.
Take 2 minutes to make this happen ([link removed])
I know you care about public services. Thank you for all the generous support you’ve given us in the past. You’ve made victories possible before with your actions, and many of you with your kind financial support - revealing threats to the NHS, protecting probation, bringing the East Coast line into public hands.

We need you for this fight now more than ever.

A media that only works for a handful of rich owners doesn’t help us get the public services we need. We believe in public services and public service broadcasting. The stories we tell are crucial to winning public ownership overall.

This is about democracy and decency. It’s about all of us coming together to decide what kind of country we want to be.

Thank you for standing up for what’s right against this government's attacks.

Solidarity.

Cat, Ellen, Chris, Alice and Pascale - the We Own It team

PS The deadline for this fundraiser is the end of this week - midnight on Sunday 23rd February. Don’t delay, set up your regular donation today [link removed]
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