Media: Talk of the Trade: BCC man 'stays'

DESPITE reports to the contrary, Robert Hargreaves, secretary of the beleaguered Broadcasting Complaints Commission, has not resigned, says its chairman, Canon Peter Pilkington. He says that after the BBC's fury over the 'Babies on Benefit' Panorama programme, people seem to have forgotten why the public needs protection. 'Broadcasting is a very powerful instrument: there is need for statutory control. If there is a polemical BBC broadcast what redress does the complainant have?' Earlier this year the BBC set up a programme complaints unit, but there is no sign of it copying the Independent Television Commission with a public complaints bulletin.