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One of the first changes to take place is the ban on its
main presenters from writing columns on contentious issues,
which will remove, among others, John Humphrys from the Sunday
Times, and Jeff Randall from the Sunday Telegraph,
according to media reports. It has also announced it is strengthening
its complaints process and the editorial procedures designed
to ensure programmes comply with its guidelines, both of which
had come under criticism by some who gave evidence to Lord
Hutton.
Gavyn
Davies |
BBC World Service head Mark Byford has been promoted to deputy
director general and put in charge of both complaints and
compliance procedures. Reporting to him will be a new controller
of complaints, heading an enlarged department, and the controller
of editorial policy, whose department already deals with programmes
before they are broadcast.
In his report, Hutton has pointed out that, “I consider that
editorial system which the BBC permits was defective in that
(correspondent Andrew) Gilligan was allowed to broadcast his
report... without editors having seen a script of what he
was going to say and without having considered whether it
should be approved.” The judge said BBC governors should have
properly investigated Downing Street complaints as they defended
the Corporation's independence, reports say.
Dr
David Kelly |
Other changes that could take place in the BBC could also
change the way programmes like Today and networks like
Radio 5 Live and News 24 go about their business, particularly
in their live coverage. BBC director general Greg Dyke had
admitted to Lord Hutton in his testimony that there were "lessons
to be learned" from the Kelly episode. Kelly allegedly slashed
his wrist after being outed as the source of a BBC reporter's
claim that Prime Minister Tony Blair's team exaggerated the
threat posed by Iraq's weapons to justify war.
Dyke has since got senior BBC lawyers and editorial figures
to review producer guidelines, particularly concerning the
use of anonymous sources and how they are described in broadcasts.
Dr David Kelly had supposedly killed himself after being named
as the suspected source of the BBC’s weapons dossier story
put out by Andrew Gilligan about the British government's
intelligence dossier.
Lord
Hutton |
Dyke now says senior editorial figures will now consider
whether in future all controversial reports should be scripted,
instead of being discussed by the reporter and the presenter
in what is known in broadcast terms as a "two-way" interview.
The dossier story broke in the same format, in a discussion
between Gilligan and Humphrys. In his evidence, Gilligan later
said that he'd made "a slip of the tongue" in that broadcast
and regretted giving the impression he thought the government
had lied. "It is something that does happen in live broadcasts,
an occupational hazard. It would have been better to have
scripted this one."
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