BBC chiefs last night promised ‘an impartiality revolution’ after a storm over bias and the Martin Bashir scandal culminated in warnings that the corporation might not even exist in a decade.
A hard-hitting report yesterday revealed a continuing ‘culture of defensiveness’ at the BBC and accusations of ‘groupthink’.
It comes days after new Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries openly questioned the ‘elitist’ and ‘snobbish’ broadcaster’s future.
Bosses have now announced a major ‘action plan’ under which anyone who breaches its standards could face the sack ‘regardless of seniority, profile or role’.
BBC chiefs last night promised to combat bias after a hard-hitting report yesterday revealed accusations of ‘groupthink’ in the wake of the cover-up over the Martin Bashir scandal. Pictured: Princess Diana’s sensational 1995 Panorama interview
The move follows the furore over the Bashir scandal. Despite duping Earl Spencer in a bid to secure a sensational 1995 Panorama interview with his sister Princess Diana, the ‘rogue reporter’ was protected by a cover-up and later rehired as the corporation’s religion editor.
Yesterday, BBC chairman Richard Sharp told the Daily Mail the new action plan amounts to an ‘impartiality revolution’ which will benefit both the corporation’s 21,500 employees and its millions of viewers.
Mr Sharp said: ‘This is a chance for the BBC to be what it always aspires to be from its original charter: fair, authoritative and impartial.’
The BBC accepted the report of its practices by Arts Council England chairman Sir Nicholas Serota.
The corporation has now unveiled its ‘biggest and most significant push’ to ensure its content is fair, accurate and unbiased.
It released a ten-point action plan in response to the Serota report, which includes extending impartiality training throughout the organisation. It also recommends the BBC’s board monitors impartiality through metrics including editorial complaints.
BBC chairman Richard Sharp (pictured) told the Daily Mail the new action plan amounts to an ‘impartiality revolution’ which will benefit the corporation’s 21,500 employees and viewers
Managers should also be ‘challenged to represent audiences from all parts of the UK, both on and off screen’ as part of a diversity plan, it added. Last night Government sources stressed Mrs Dorries was ‘withholding judgment’ on whether BBC bosses would rise to the challenges she had set them in order to ‘rebuild trust’.
Privately, some in Government have noted that bosses look like they’re genuinely trying to address the BBC’s long-standing problems, the source said.
They added: ‘But of course we’ll have to wait and see where these proposals actually get.’
Last May, retired judge Lord Dyson’s report into Bashir found the BBC covered up what it knew of his actions, and that its own internal investigation into the affair was ‘woefully ineffective’.
Sir Nicholas was supported in his review by two other BBC board members – Sir Robbie Gibb, Theresa May’s former communications chief and a fierce critic of alleged partisanship displayed by some of the corporation’s star names, and ex-newspaper editor Ian Hargreaves.
Some of those interviewed for the report said BBC employees – ‘including high-profile and senior staff’ – had ‘not always been held to account for breaching editorial standards’.
The corporation has now unveiled its ‘biggest and most significant push’ – a ten-point action plan in response to the Serota report – to ensure its content is fair, accurate and unbiased (stock image)
‘Many of the people we spoke to in this review felt that a culture of defensiveness still exists at the BBC,’ it added. ‘They suggested that there remains a tendency to rush into immediate defence of BBC content and an unwillingness to admit mistakes, especially in the face of external pressure.’
It said an environment where staff can discuss editorial judgments and learn from mistakes was ‘essential if the BBC is to avoid a “groupthink” mentality, whereby an unwillingness to dissent from a group consensus or disagree with the opinions of more senior staff, can lead to flawed judgments’.
The review stressed that the BBC today was ‘much more open and accountable’ than at the time of Bashir’s interview.
Mr Sharp told the Mail: ‘This is an opportunity for us to take a step back and reflect on many aspects of what went wrong and ask ourselves how can we improve our current practices. It is crucial we deliver impartiality.
‘Dyson’s report exposed failures in governance – these must never happen again. So we have asked the board monitoring to see how we can improve what we do.
‘This creates true accountability whereby the board will audit and monitor and the people working for the BBC have to maintain and execute their work consistent with our values and exacting standards. Across the BBC, those values have to be consistent. It’s fair to say this is part mea culpa about past practices and a determination to do things better. I want to have an impartiality revolution.
‘This will be good for the culture inside the BBC as well as for everyone who listens or watches us – things have not been optimal.’ Just weeks after being promoted in last month’s Cabinet reshuffle, Mrs Dorries told a fringe event at the Conservative Party conference the BBC would have to change if it wanted a funding settlement.
Accusing it of a ‘lack of impartiality’ combined with a ‘groupthink’ which ‘excludes working-class backgrounds’, she said: ‘Will the BBC still be here in ten years? I don’t know.’
A Department of Culture, Media and Sport spokesman said: ‘The BBC is in a privileged position as the UK’s leading public service broadcaster and we expect its journalists to adhere to the highest possible standards in recognition of the public funds it receives.