BBC’s new action plan outlines push for fair, accurate and unbiased content

The BBC has published an action plan to raise standards across the organisation, including on impartiality, following claims of bias at the UK pubcaster.

Tim Davie

The BBC has published a 10-point plan focused on impartiality, editorial standards and whistleblowing designed to help develop and safeguard staff and improve output across all BBC services.

The plan includes: regular reviews of content; increased staff training; external oversight on standards; increased transparency; and a new editorial whistleblowing policy.

It builds on the renewed commitment to audience trust and impartiality announced by director general Tim Davie when he took up his position last year.

The BBC’s impartiality plan has been informed by the Serota Review into editorial processes, governance and culture, which was commissioned by the BBC board in May, following the publication of the Lord Dyson report.

Although the review, led by BBC board member Sir Nicholas Serota, found that “much has changed” in 25 years and that culture, editorial oversight and governance had all evolved and improved, there was “still potential for significant improvement.”

The key actions from the BBC’s impartiality plan, which represents its biggest and most significant push to ensure its programmes and content are fair, accurate and unbiased, include the following measures.

The BBC’s editorial policy team will be strengthened and given increased responsibility to support content makers. The BBC executive will lead internal management content reviews to assess the extent to which content meets editorial standards.

A simple set of procedures will be published for dealing with internal investigations with designated, experienced staff able to conduct investigations, and clarifications to the complaints framework on how the BBC handles accelerated editorial complaints about broadcast or published content.

The editorial guidelines and standards committee – which assesses standards post-broadcast – will be strengthened with the appointment of two editorial experts with experience from outside the BBC. These appointments will be subject to the same requirements on impartiality applied to other members of the board.

Managers will be challenged to represent audiences from all parts of the UK, both on and off screen – via the ‘Across the UK’ plan to diversify staff and through ongoing audience research.

Alongside Serota, the review was conducted by: BBC board members Sir Robbie Gibb and Ian Hargreaves; independent and external Chris Banatvala, a former journalist and now consultant on regulatory policy and editorial standards; and Caroline Daniel, a consultant and former newspaper editor.

Interviews were conducted with more than 100 people, including senior BBC executives, editorial policy and complaints advisers, editors, presenters, reporters, employee groups, staff from BBC Studios and staff based overseas.

Externally the panel spoke to UK media regulator Ofcom, independent production companies and broadcasters, plus newspapers in the UK, US and Europe and other private sector organisations.

BBC chairman Richard Sharp said: “We need a BBC that is beyond reproach when it comes to impartiality, standards, processes and transparency. The Serota Review makes clear recommendations to the Board across all these areas, which will be acted upon. We accept the report in full.”

The board wanted “assurance that the corporation was able to deal with present and emerging challenges, as well as to learn from the mistakes of the past.”

Davie said: “The BBC’s editorial values of impartiality, accuracy and trust are the foundation of our relationship with audiences in the UK and around the world. Our audiences deserve and expect programmes and content which earn their trust every day and we must meet the highest standards and hold ourselves accountable in everything we do.

“The changes we have announced not only ensure we learn the lessons from the past but also protect these essential values for the future.”

Serota added: “There is no doubt the BBC is a very different place to that of 25 years ago and, thankfully, progress has been made. Nevertheless, there is an opportunity for the BBC leadership team to go further and ensure that accuracy, impartiality, fairness and integrity are embedded more deeply across the organisation.

“The BBC can and should be properly held to account against these core values and standards. This can only be achieved through improved transparency and openness, both internally and externally.

“We have every confidence the BBC leadership understands this and also the very real need to deliver these improvements on behalf of audiences.”