BBC Suspends All Competitions Following String Of Breaches
The BBC has announced a total suspension of all competitions, with phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio to stop from midnight tonight, and online and interactive ones to be taken down as soon as possible.
The announcement came following a meeting of director general Mark Thompson and the BBC Trust, on the same day that Ofcom announced “systemic failures” in television premium rate phone-in services (see Ofcom Finds ‘Systemic Failures’ In Premium Rate Phone-In Services).
Thompson told the Board that an unprecedented programme of editorial training focussing on the issue of honesty with audiences would also be implemented, after further serious breaches of editorial standards across some areas of BBC programmes and content were discovered.
The further breaches were revealed following a BBC-wide search of around one million hours of output since January 2005, and Thompson announced the new measures in response to demands for action from the Trust.
All 16,500 programmes and content staff will attend a new mandatory training programme, Safeguarding Trust, from the autumn. It will emphasise the absolute imperative to understand and comply with all of the BBC’s values and editorial standards.
Thompson said: “Nothing matters more than trust and fair dealing with our audiences. The vast majority of the 400,000 hours of BBC output each year, on television, radio and online, is accurate, fair and complies with our stringent editorial standards.
“However, a number of programmes have failed to meet these high standards. This is totally unacceptable. It is right that we are open with the public when we have fallen short and that we demonstrate that we take this very seriously indeed. The behaviour of a small number of production staff who have passed themselves off as viewers and listeners must stop. We must now swiftly put our house in order.”
Addressing the entire BBC staff this afternoon in an internal BBC broadcast, he added: “Our values and our editorial guidelines must take precedence over everything else. There is no excuse for deception. I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC. We have to regard deception as a very grave breach of discipline, which will normally lead to dismissal.
“If you have a choice between deception and a programme going off air, let the programme go. It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive.”
The director general also outlined to the BBC Trust this morning further measures in addition to the suspension of phone-related competitions and the unprecedented editorial training programme, in response to public concern over breaches of editorial standards.
A full and independent inquiry into the incident involving BBC One and the Queen will be commissioned. The report will be submitted by Thompson to the BBC Trust in the autumn and then the findings of this inquiry will be made public.
Further editorial breaches, in which production staff have passed themselves off as genuine viewers or listeners, or invented a fictitious winner, have been uncovered since his original report to the Trust in May.
These included an incident on Comic Relief on BBC One in March where a member of the production team posed as a caller; a similar incident on Sport Relief in July on BBC One, and an incident where calls did not even get through and a fictitious winner was announced on Children in Need, transmitted on 18 November 2005, on BBC One Scotland.
Other issues highlighted arose in the Liz Kershaw Show, transmitted in 2005/6 on BBC 6 Music, and on a programme on the World Service last April.
Thompson said: “We know that fundamental public trust in the BBC is very high. But recent events show that we cannot take that trust for granted. The BBC Trust has charged me and my senior colleagues with working with BBC staff to put this right and reduce the risk of a recurrence. This will take humility and perseverance, but it can and will be done.”
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