By launching a consultation on decriminalising the non-payment of the BBC licence fee, the government has added fuel to the fire that is the debate about how our national broadcaster operates, and whether or not it should be reformed. Whatever your views on the BBC’s future, you will find plenty of analysis and opinion. There are many articles that have already been written on this subject and no doubt a lot more will be said over the next weeks and months. My hope is that the high quality of much of its output will be maintained: as someone who spent many years abroad, I know that the BBC is still the envy of the world and one of Britain’s biggest soft power assets. Comparing it to streaming services such as Netflix is absolute nonsense.

What is often missing from discussions about the media landscape in Britain is the state of local media. And it is not good: since 2005, there has been a net loss of 245 local newspapers, and tens of thousands of jobs. As social media companies have continued to snatch advertising revenue from print newspapers, their circulation has fallen dramatically. The BBC currently funds local reporters and pools its resources with competitors to cover local news. If its funding is cut, it may no longer be able to do it.

This should worry us all, not just journalists: how will scrutiny of local authorities work in a world without local media? A social media company is not going to step in and send its employees to report from a magistrate court or county council. Local papers have long been the place where some of the best reporters learnt their craft, so while you can argue that the cream always rises to the top, if you reduce the number of places where aspiring young journalists can develop their skills and make a living, many will simply do something else.

National papers have fought back, with some success: The Times and the Sunday Times have more than 300,000 digital subscribers, and the Guardian recorded an operating profit for 2018-19, its first such profit in two decades. But they are facing a challenge of attracting new, younger subscribers who don’t remember a pre-internet world and may not understand how crucial the Fourth Estate – the press – is to upholding a healthy democracy. Investigative journalism fulfils the essential function of holding the powerful to account and exposing scandals and corruption, at both national and local level. Oppressive regimes always crack down on independent media, imprison journalists and control public broadcasters, because journalism’s core value is impartiality. All citizens, most of all politicians, need to hear diverse views, not just the views of which they approve.

So what’s to be done? The generation now reaching adulthood, dubbed Generation Z, are ‘digital natives’, who have little exposure to established news organisations. They are more familiar with YouTube, than the BBC – the average age of BBC One viewer is 61. As is so often the case, the answer is, in my opinion, education. Young people need to be taught the benefits of supporting and paying for good quality journalism. If we lose it, we will regret it.