BBC publishes guidelines for BBC journalism
On 23 June the BBC published in full the findings and recommendations of the Neil Report. The review group was set up in February 2004 by the then Acting Director-General Mark Byford to identify the editorial lessons from Lord Hutton’s Inquiry and Report. It was led by the BBC’s former Director of News and Current Affairs Ronald Neil and included a former Editor of ITN and BBC editorial executives.
The independent panel’s recommendations will be implemented in full by BBC managers, editors and journalists and will be incorporated into the BBC Producers’ Guidelines. The Neil Report will become required reading for all current and future BBC journalists, their managers and Governors.
The Report lays out recommendations and guidelines to strengthen BBC journalism in the future. Clearly stating the core values of BBC journalism, the Report emphasises the importance of continuous training, and of learning from both existing best practice and from the specific circumstances around the broadcast which led to the Hutton Inquiry last year. The Report’s most ambitious recommendation is that the BBC should establish a college of journalism under the leadership of an academic principal.
Announcing the publication of the Report, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said: “The BBC does not have the public’s trust as of right; it has to earn and maintain it. The Neil Report will enable us to do this, highlighting what we do well and what we could do better. It is a template for strengthening BBC journalism in the future and I have asked Mark Byford, Deputy Director-General, to oversee the immediate implementation of the Report’s recommendations in full.”
The Report concludes that:
The BBC should continue to report stories based on a single source but “only where the story is one of significant public interest and the correct procedures have been followed”.
Audience should be given “as much accurate information as is compatible with protecting the identity of the source” and descriptions should be consistent.
Stories from anonymous sources should have greater editorial scrutiny within the BBC.
As BBC News has 10 times as many journalists than a national newspaper, broadcasting 120 hours of output a day, editors are the day-to-day custodians of the BBC’s journalistic values.
Accurate and reliable note-taking should be part of all BBC journalists’ training.
The need to demonstrate fairness, openness and straight dealing in the BBC’s journalism is paramount.
Live “two ways” are still an important part of modern broadcasting but that they are normally inappropriate for breaking stories containing serious and potentially defamatory allegations.
Editorial lawyers should be a routine fixture in the main news areas.
A day earlier (22 June), on his first day at the BBC, the new Director-General Mark Thompson outlined a restructuring of the BBC’s Executive Committee, and announced reviews into its commercial businesses, production and commissioning, and how to increase efficiencies and control costs. He is intent on making the structure of the BBC simpler, more effective and more able to adapt and change by cutting the main decision-making board in half (members would be reduced from 16 to nine) and setting up three new boards to oversee the corporation’s creative output, its commercial activities and its journalism.
Thompson will chair a cross media Creative Board made up of all divisions that drive the BBC’s creative work. Alan Yentob, currently Director of Drama, Entertainment and CBBC, will also become the BBC’s Creative Director. Mark Byford remains as deputy Director General, and he will also head two of the three new boards. Byford is brought in above the director of news, Richard Sambrook, to chair the journalism board, which brings the national, regional and World Service news organisations under the same umbrella for the first time. Finance Director John Smith will chair the third board, covering the BBC’s commercial businesses, giving greater strategic clarity and realising economic and creative potential. He will also take on the new role of Chief Operating Officer (COO), taking charge of all the BBC’s commercial and resourcing subsidiaries, as well as leading its Finance and Property departments. A fourth major strand of work will be led by Caroline Thomson, currently Director of Policy and Legal, who becomes Director of Charter Renewal, reporting to both the Director-General and the BBC Chairman.
On 29 June the BBC will publish its first public contribution to the Government’s review of the BBC Charter. This document will set out a vision for the BBC’s future based around building public value.
