BBC Establishes New Board To Monitor Editorial Standards

In response to last week’s cessation of all competitions following revelations of multiple editorial breaches, the BBC has announced it will establish a new Editorial Standards Board.

Last Wednesday, the BBC announced a total suspension of all competitions, with phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio to stop from midnight that night, and online and interactive ones to be taken down as soon as possible, following the revelation that several programmes had deceived viewers (see BBC Suspends All Competitions Following String Of Breaches).

The news came on the same day that Ofcom announced it had discovered “systemic failures” in premium rate phone-in services on television (see Ofcom Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ In Premium Rate Phone-In Services).

The Board will be chaired by the deputy director general, Mark Byford, who will report to the director general, Mark Thompson. It will be comprised of directors of programme and content areas with other directors and senior staff, and will also be attended by an independent director from the BBC Executive Board, Samir Shah.

The purpose will be to discuss key editorial standards facing the BBC overall and develop policy from it; to review the BBC’s editorial compliance systems and ensure that the programme of action announced by the director general last week is implemented as a matter of priority and in full.

Will Wyatt CBE, the former chief executive of BBC Broadcast, has been instructed to conduct an independent inquiry to establish a full understanding of the events surrounding the publication by the BBC at a press launch for the BBC One Autumn season of misleading footage relating to Her Majesty the Queen.

Wyatt’s inquiry will report to the director general in September. The director general will present the report to the BBC Trust in October before the findings are made public.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk