Richard Sharp resigned as chairman of the BBC as a result of the investigation into a potential conflict of interest in the process of his appointment.

Sharp helped Boris Johnson, prime minister at the time, secure a £800,000 loan shortly before his appointment as BBC chair in early 2021. He didn’t disclose his connection to the loan during the appointment process.

Sharp announced his decision to resign last Friday following publication of the report by the office of the UK commissioner for public appointments, which concluded that Sharp “failed to disclose potential perceived conflicts of interest”.

The BBC chair denies that a real conflict of interest was present, but he apologised for the “inadvertent” omission in disclosing a perceived conflict of interest and said he would quit to “prioritise the interests of the BBC”. Sharp intends to stay by the end of June as the search for his successor is underway. 


Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published the organisation’s annual World Press Freedom Index. The report shows a further decline in worldwide press freedom, following the recent multi-year trend, with a record 31 countries assessed to be in a “very serious” situation.

In Europe the situation follows existent trends. Russia’s war against Ukraine is impacting the region, with press freedom hitting new lows in Russia (164th place) and its ally Belarus (157th). Ukraine, despite living under martial law, saw its ranking considerably improved compared to last year (it’s now 79th, up from 106th last year), partly thanks to the reduced impact of oligarchs on major news outlets.

North and Western Europe remain places with greatest press freedom; Norway kept the first place on the ranking. Despite troubles in countries like Greece (107th, the lowest in the European Union), in the EU “there are twice as many countries that have risen in the 2023 Index as there are that have fallen”, RSF notes.

Elsewhere in the world, India and Turkey saw further considerable press freedom decline in the wake of government crackdowns, the United States fell slightly because of occasions of violence against journalists, while the situation in Brazil improved following the departure of president Jair Bolsonaro.

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