Witney TV: we don't want BBC cash

The co-founder of Witney TV has said the West Oxfordshire web video news service does not want funding from the BBC licence fee, as the internet broadcaster lands an interview with the local constituency MP - David Cameron. Following its exclusive with Jeremy Clarkson in September about The Stig being sacked , tomorrow Witney TV will put footage on its website of Cameron answering questions filmed by viewers ranging from "Are gay civil ceremonies going to be made to proper weddings?" to "If Hollywood make a film of your life, who do you want to play you?". Cameron indicated the government is looking at the issue of gay civil ceremonies, but said no actor is "desperate" for the part of playing him in a film. At the Royal Television Society international conference in September the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, held up Witney TV as a shining example of "a hyperlocal initiative that is helping to prove that the 'big society' is alive and well in David Cameron's constituency". Last month, as part of the coalition government's hastily negotiated licence fee deal with the BBC , the corporation agreed to provide £25m in startup funding and then £5m a year to subsidise local TV and online news service. However, Witney TV co-founder Barry Clack said he does not want the BBC's money. "We can do what we want editorially. We don't want to be a broadcaster. It just means you get these standards and bureaucracy. The beauty is that because it's on the internet we can do what we want," Clack told MediaGuardian.co.uk. "We've got a guy who sells stuff on eBay. But somebody from Channel 4 said we wouldn't be able to advertise him because he'd have to be a licensed auctioneer so we wouldn't be able to take his money." Witney TV was set up in May by stills photographer Clack and part-time film-maker Gavin Hyatt, and is put together on Apple Macs with no wealthy backers. Clack said that by the time the "quangos" have "fannied about" sorting out the system and rules for local TV funding from the licence fee, "it'll be months". "We're out there just doing it and just try and stop us," he added. For the Cameron interview Witney TV got viewers, including a little girl, to film their questions and then played them to him on an iPad – a move the prime minister thought was "absolutely brilliant", said Clack. "There was nothing we couldn't ask him, I think because of the fact he likes what we're doing," he added. Clack worked on and off as a photographer with Cameron and the local council during the local and general election campaigns earlier this year. When they spoke to Clarkson last month, Witney TV also filmed the Top Gear presenter asking Cameron if he would become The Stig. "Cameron said he has in fact been on the Top Gear track but he did it in some green cars. So Clarkson said he would have to exorcise the demons of greenness and do it in a Ferrari," Clack said. The interview was recorded in Cameron's constituency office in Witney. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email [email protected] or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. • If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".