BBC Chief Announces Measures to “Put Our House in Order”

LONDON, July 18: In the wake of the botched trailer for a
documentary about the Queen and the fine for a call-in quiz on Blue Peter, the BBC has announced a series of measures to
address breaches of editorial standards, including suspending all phone-in
competitions.

Earlier this month, Ofcom imposed a £50,000 fine on the BBC
after the results of a phone-in competition on the popular kids’ show Blue
Peter were faked back in November 2006.
Last week, meanwhile, in showcasing the fall schedule for BBC One, controller
Peter Fincham showed reporters a trailer for A Year With the Queen that apparently showed the Queen storming out of a
photo session with Annie Leibovitz. As it turned out, the clip, from producers
RDF Media, had been edited out of sequence—the footage was shot as the
Queen was entering the room, not leaving it. That incident promoted a review of
about 1 million hours of output since January 2005, revealing “breaches of
editorial standards” in a range of other programming. This included botched
call-ins on BBC One’s Comic Relief
and Sport Relief and BBC
Two/CBBC’s TMi.

The measures announced by Director-General Mark Thompson
today include an immediate suspension of phone-related competitions on BBC
television and radio. Interactive and online competitions will be taken down
“as soon as possible,” the broadcaster said.

In addition, the organization plans an editorial training
program focused on the issue of “honesty with audiences.” All 16,500 program
and content staff will attend a new mandatory training session, entitled
Safeguarding Trust, beginning in the fall.

"Nothing matters more than trust and fair dealing with
our audiences,” Thompson said. “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 programs
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 behavior 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 in an internal BBC
broadcast, Thompson 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
program going off air, let the program go. It is far better to accept a
production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive."

The organization has said it will also commission an
independent inquiry into the incident involving BBC One and the Queen. The
report will be submitted by Thompson to the BBC Trust in the fall. Until the
findings of that inquiry are released, the BBC will not commission any further
content from RDF Media.

Furthermore, some editorial staff at the BBC “will be asked
to stand back from their duties, pending reviews of why it took so long for a
number of historical incidents to come to light.”

The BBC will also revise the standard contracts both for BBC
staff and BBC suppliers “to ensure that responsibility for upholding the BBC's
editorial standards and consequences of breaching those standards are
understood by everyone.” Steps will also be taken to ensure that trailers and
another promotional materials meet BBC output standards.