Ed Curran: 'BBC is a bogeyman'

Former editor of the Belfast Telegraph Ed Curran has made an extraordinary attack on the expansionism of the BBC while speaking to the Culture, Media and Sport committee, HoldtheFrontPage reports.
Curran, now editor-in-chief of Independent News and Media's Northern Ireland operations, said: "I do regard the BBC as a bogeyman.
"My personal view is that the BBC needs to be restricted in the way it expands, particularly in the regions. Since the 1960s, I think its expansion in the regions has been detrimental to the regional media.
"In a region like Northern Ireland the BBC employs more journalists than all three daily newspapers in Belfast put together. It's almost impossible to compete against that."
What should concern the BBC is that Curran is one of the most respected figures in the regional press. I wonder how many editors of regional papers share his views on the BBC?