The BBC is addressing its problems – we should allow it time to do so

Editorial: There would be little wrong in widening the BBC’s governance, so that it better reflects the nation it seeks to serve. However, the essential editorial independence and freedom of the organisation has to be protected

Friday 21 May 2021 22:34 BST
Comments
<p>The BBC has already taken many steps to ensure such breaches of trust with the viewer do not occur again</p>

The BBC has already taken many steps to ensure such breaches of trust with the viewer do not occur again

Boris Johnson is a man who was once, in the 1990s, sacked from The Times for making up quotes from an academic who happened to be his godfather. In his long journalistic career, he has also had his share of scrapes and controversies, and remains to this day deeply unloved on Merseyside.

As an authority on media ethics, then, he leaves something to be desired. Even so, he is right to speak out about the scandal surrounding Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. As the Dyson inquiry laid out in detail, there was deceit, and the BBC’s subsequent cover-ups, now exposed, have done nothing to protect its reputation. Even without the dignified and dramatic interventions by Diana’s sons, the government should indeed, as Mr Johnson pledges, make sure that the BBC “will be taking every possible step to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again”.

The truth, though, is that the BBC has already taken many steps to ensure such breaches of trust with the viewer do not occur again, including commissioning the Dyson report and cooperating fully with it. As with the Savile scandal before it, and the reporting of both scandals, the BBC’s programme makers have shown themselves to be the best at investigating wrongdoing in the BBC itself, bizarre as a Panorama documentary about a Panorama interview might sound. It was, after all, an interview with John Humphrys on the BBC’s Today programme that led to the resignation of the then director-general of the BBC, George Entwhistle. When the BBC’s journalists believe that it has done something bad, the BBC becomes its own worst enemy.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in