From Blue Peter to Fleabag, you’ll find an outpouring of love for our BBC. It's a British institution as cherished as the NHS. It’s part of who we are. It’s ours.

But in recent years, political interference has chipped away at the BBC's independence. Decisions have been taken behind closed doors, without the people who watch and listen having a say. Internationally, public-service journalism is facing lawsuits and intimidation. At home, culture-war politics threatens its editorial independence. The BBC shouldn’t answer to presidents or politicians – it should answer to the public.

That's why we’ve been campaigning since 2015 to protect the BBC’s future by putting power back where it belongs: legally protecting the BBC by making it a mutual owned and answerable to the British public. It should be licence fee payers, not political appointees, who make up the BBC Board and give it a new direction for the future.

This campaign is approaching its biggest moment yet. Charter renewal is on the table, and the next decade of the BBC is being decided right now. If we want the BBC we grew up with – trusted, independent, fearless – its future must be decided by the public, not politicians.

The BBC isn’t perfect – but it’s ours. In an age of division and disinformation, we need public-service broadcasting more than ever. For decades, the world has turned to the BBC in moments of crisis and confusion. Its global reputation is one of Britain’s greatest assets. If we want to protect and restore that reputation, we need it to be publicly-owned in the truest sense of the word.

Should the BBC be shaped by whoever happens to hold power – or by the public it serves? If you back A People's BBC, add your name now.