BBC Guilty Of Leaving Staff “Dangling” After They Make Power Abuse Complaints, Says Chairman
BBC chairman Samir Shah has said the British broadcaster is guilty of leaving employees “dangling” after they make misconduct complaints about colleagues.
Delivering his first major speech since being appointed earlier this year, Shah said the BBC must do more to reassure staff members that they are being taken seriously after making abuse of power complaints.
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Shah was speaking after the BBC has been plagued by high-profile misconduct issues, including news anchor Huw Edwards accessing child abuse images and concerns about training methods on Strictly Come Dancing.
“There continues to be a sense that powerful people ‘get away with it;’ that people who have had the courage to complain are left dangling; that more visible action needs to be taken when someone is found to have crossed the line. And frankly, for everything to be done a great deal quicker,” Shah said.
The BBC board has launched a workplace culture review to address these concerns, with consultancy Change Associates appointed to oversee the work. Insiders told Deadline that they plan to dish dirt as part of the review process.
Answering questions following his speech, Shah — a former independent producer — said he wanted the review to deliver “action rather than yet another little proposal.”
Shah acknowledged there are HR and legal reasons why the BBC handles complaints in the way that it does, but he said the corporation must “find a way in which people are kept informed” about how their concerns are being dealt with to improve confidence in procedures.
Shah used his speech to call for action to “future-proof public service broadcasters” in the UK amid the rise of U.S. streamers. He declined to rule out mergers between UK public broadcasters when Deadline asked if this was necessary to compete with the might of Netflix and Disney.
Shah replied: “My call is to allow us to collaborate where we can and compete when it matters. We should be free to be innovative about what we can do and how we can meet the challenges.”
The BBC chairman also called for the corporation’s funding to be disentangled from government decision-making. Ministers set the level of the licence fee and can make unilateral decisions, such as requiring the BBC to help pay for the World Service.
“Any idea that our finances are at the mercy of the stroke of a government minister’s pen will always come with the risk of damaging perceptions around the independence of the BBC,” he said.
“Of course, the BBC receives very considerable public money and must be accountable for how it is spent – that is beyond question. But whatever turns out to be the funding model of the future, we need to de-politicize the decision-making about the revenue raised. After all, we need to find the best approach for an organization, but that must not only be, but also be seen to be, wholly free of political pressure.”
He also floated the idea of the BBC being granted a permanent charter as opposed to an operating agreement that is renewed every decade. “There are more than 1,000 charter bodies [in the UK], and I am not aware of any other that needs to be renewed like the BBC,” he said.
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