The BBC runs the most important news site on the Internet, bar none.

The site is both deep and reputable. In a journalism world filled with self-promotion and ideological agendas the BBC stands, almost alone, above it. (The picture, by the way, is of Richard Baker introducing the first BBC TV news report, 50 years ago today. Decades from now BBC News Online will be equally celebrated.)

Of course, the lords of the British press have a different opinion. They want it shut down. It competes with their voices, and their ideologies. It shows them up.

The decision (PDF warning), part of a review of the BBC's Royal Charter, seems to be no. But there will be changes.

Sub-sites based entirely on commercial entertainment, like those devoted to games, are going to go.

Future growth of the site will be based on the "BBC's public service remit," that is, the requirement that its actions serve the public interest. There is no doubt that news is at the heart of that, and news won't disappear.

BBC critics like Hugh Drayton, who runs an Internet publishing trade group, are in my view overreacting, and reading more into these changes than exists. "There is a clear view that the BBC's activities online need to be regulated and reduced," he said, adding he'd be happy to become a BBC governor and start the chopping.

It won't happen. And we should be thankful for that. The UK should, especially, be thankful for that. Because if its news came only from the private sector the nation would have far less credibility in the world than it does now.

America's credibility rests on its military and its economy. The credibility of Britain rests on the BBC. Without it, the UK is just one small piece in a giant European pie.

PostScript: If the face of Baker seems vaguely familiar to Americans of a certain age, it may be because he appeared, as himself, in a Monty Python sketch, doing a parody of his daily program. He retired in 1982.)