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| Britain |
| BBC suspends all phone-in competitions -"fictitious winners ..." |
| 2007-07-18 |
| The BBC is to suspend all its phone-in competitions after the Corporation's Trust expressed concerns about "significant failures of control and compliance". An editorial review revealed viewers had been misled in shows including Comic Relief and Children In Need, some of which featured fictitious winners of phone-in competitions. Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, said the failures within the corporation and by its suppliers, have "compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty". "There is no excuse for deception," he said. "I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC. "It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive." The Trust said the additional editorial failings showed "further deeply disappointing evidence of insufficient understanding amongst certain staff of the standards of accuracy and honesty expected, and inadequate editorial controls to ensure compliance with those standards." It added: "We have made clear that we regard any deception or breach of faith with our audiences as being utterly unacceptable." All phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio will cease from midnight tonight, while interactive and online competitions will be taken down as soon as possible. Programmes found to have breached standards include: # BBC1's Sports Relief in July 2006 # Comic Relief in March 2007 # BBC1 Scotland's Children In Need in November 2005 # TMi on CBBC and BBC2 in September 2006 # BBC 6 Music's Liz Kershaw Show in 2006 # The World Service's White Label show in April 2006. In the Comic Relief programme, a caller who successfully answered a question in a competition for a celebrity prize was actually a member of the production staff. During the Children in Need show, a fake competition winner was announced during a segment called Raven: The Island following technical problems. Mr Thompson said the corporation will also hold a full and independent inquiry into a controversial programme about the Queen, by production company RDF Media. Earlier today, Ofcom published a damning inquiry into recent phone-in scandals and concluded there is a "systemic failure" in the way broadcasters operate premium rate lines. The media regulator accused telecoms operators, producers and broadcasters of a lack of transparency. It said there was a need for clearer pricing schemes, fairer competitions, and greater external auditing. "If broadcasters want audiences to go on spending millions calling in, they need to show they take consumer protection as seriously as programme content," said Richard Ayre, who led the inquiry. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #3 I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC. And he said this with a straight face !?! |
| Posted by: Abu do you love 2007-07-18 20:31 |
| #2 "I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC. Horseshit, you just hate being caught. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-07-18 16:05 |
| #1 Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, said the failures within the corporation and by its suppliers, have "compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty". How can you compromise that which you do not have? |
| Posted by: AT 2007-07-18 15:28 |