Ofcom Boss Lord Grade Calls on the BBC to ‘Seriously’ Examine Impartiality Concerns after Trump Row – as Whistleblower Prepares to Give Evidence to Parliament
By GRANT TUCKER
The head of the broadcasting regulator Ofcom has called on the BBC to ‘seriously’ examine concerns over impartiality – as the whistleblower prepares to give evidence to parliament.
Lord Grade, the chairman of Ofcom, has written to the BBC chairman Samir Shah and sought assurances that a damning internal report on impartiality at the corporation was ‘being considered seriously by the BBC Board’.
The Ofcom boss outlined his concerns after receiving a copy of the dossier claiming allegations of bias, censorship and misinformation at the corporation.
The 19-page document was written by Michael Prescott, who spent three years as an adviser to the broadcaster’s Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee.
He sent the report to the BBC Board, including BBC director-general Tim Davie and chairman Samir Shah, in September because repeated warnings to the BBC’s editorial standard watchdog were ‘dismissed or ignored’.
The Mail can reveal that Mr Prescott will now give evidence to parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport select committee on Wednesday over his concerns about editorial standards at the BBC.
The committee wrote to BBC chair Mr Shah on Tuesday, following the media coverage of the Prescott report, but they have yet to receive a response.
A source said: ‘The evidence session on Wednesday next week will give MPs a chance to explore the BBC’s handling of editorial standards further with Mr Prescott, as the Government prepares to launch the process to review and renew the BBC’s Royal Charter.’
Lord Grade, the chairman of Ofcom, has written to the BBC chairman Samir Shah and sought assurances that a damning internal report on impartiality at the corporation was ‘being considered seriously by the BBC Board’
The Ofcom boss outlined his concerns after receiving a copy of the dossier claiming allegations of bias, censorship and misinformation at the corporation
Mr Prescott’s report laid bare his concerns about the BBC’s reporting, including the way in which a speech by Donald Trump was edited in an episode of Panorama and about the BBC’s coverage of the war in Gaza.
In the covering letter of his report, Prescott said he felt compelled to speak out because of his ‘despair at inaction by the BBC Executive when issues come to light’.
Mr Prescott, who stood down from his role in June, wrote in the letter: ‘I departed [from the advisory role] with profound and unresolved concerns about the BBC my view is that the Executive repeatedly failed to implement measures to resolve highlighted problems, and in many cases simply refused to acknowledge there was an issue at all.’
Mr Prescott was particularly concerned about the corporation turning a blind eye to a Panorama episode which edited a clip of Donald Trump to appear as if he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots.
At a meeting of the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee in May, the issue of the ‘doctored’ Trump video was discussed but according to Prescott was ‘dismissed’.
The following day Mr Prescott wrote to the BBC chairman: ‘This is a very, very dangerous precedent. I hope you agree and take some form of action to ensure this potentially huge problem is nipped in the bud.’
He did not receive a reply from Mr Shah.
The former BBC director of television Danny Cohen has called for embattled director-general Tim Davie to resign.
Mr Cohen described the Prescott report as ‘devastating’ and said it could not be easily dismissed.
He said: ‘What’s so significant is that it’s an insider’s account. It’s not external criticism. It’s the report of someone who has been inside the BBC for three years, part of the team investigating editorial and journalistic problems and failures.’
Michael Prescott was particularly concerned about the corporation turning a blind eye to a Panorama episode which edited a clip of Donald Trump to appear as if he encouraged the Capitol Hill riots
‘It’s clear the whistleblower reached such a point of despair at what he was seeing and the failure of management to address it, that he wrote this report, which ended up in the hands of Government.’
When asked if Tim Davie should resign, Mr Cohen was unequivocal, saying: ‘Yes, he should. And of course, in another age, the head of BBC News would have already had to resign in embarrassment.’
Shadow Culture Secretary Nigel Huddleston has submitted an urgent question regarding alleged BBC bias and written to the Culture Secretary.
Writing to Lisa Nandy, he said: ‘There can be absolutely no justification for this kind of deliberate manipulation and the spreading of misinformation. The BBC Charter places a clear duty on the broadcaster to be impartial and licence fee payers deserve better.’
On Tuesday, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that ‘heads should roll’ at the BBC over the crisis.
She said: ‘Everyone with a TV pays a licence, they are funded by us and they should not be telling us things that are not true. Heads should roll.’
