The BBC’s “supreme lack of accountability” has been torn apart by an ex-producer as he launched a scathing attack on the broadcaster.
Speaking to GB News, David Keighley said the broadcaster’s “internal awareness” is in a “terrible place” as two former advisers faced a grilling from MPs on its recent doctoring scandal.
Following the BBC’s row with US President Donald Trump over an edited speech on Panorama which made it appears as though he fueled the January 6 riots, the author of a leaked memo Michael Prescott faced questions by MPs on Monday, in which he told them “real work” needs to be done by the company.
Asked if he believes the BBC is institutionally biased, Mr Precott said: “No I don’t. Let’s be clear, tons of stuff the BBC does is world class – both factual and non-factual programming.”
As GB News host Martin Daubney hit out at the “supreme lack of any accountability” by Mr Prescott, Mr Keighley said: “I agree entirely.
“I’ve been monitoring BBC output professionally for 26 years now, and what it highlights is that the BBC is its own judge and jury still.”
He added: “Even though obviously Michael Prescott was an external adviser that they appointed when that system was put in place after the Serota Report, they just don’t seem to be institutionally able to take on board that the BBC’s impartiality is the central duty of its charter.
“And in order to make sure that that is the case, they need to be absolutely transparent with audiences rather than to themselves that is the case and actually happening. And in order to do that, there needs to be much more systemic internal reviewing of the output.”
Ex-BBC Producer David Keighley has hit out at the broadcaster’s ‘internal awareness’, declaring it is in a ‘terrible place’
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GB NEWS / PARLIAMENT TV
Criticising Mr Prescott’s view that the accusations “weren’t severe enough” to warrant the resignations of director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness, Martin fumed: “It just makes you wonder what planet these people are on?
“I’m sorry to be so brusque, but clearly, the findings here were provably anti-Trump, provably anti-Israel, provably pro-trans, provably pro-net zero. It’s in clear black and white, and yet to Mr Prescott, nothing to see here!”
Mr Keighley responded: “Absolutely, and I jump slightly to another development that there’s been over the past week, which is the publication of the book by Andy Webb, former BBC journalist, about the Princess Diana affair and his findings, which obviously are in parallel to this, and are absolutely outstanding.
“The reality is that the BBC have continued to cover up about the Princess Diana interview. Not the actual forgery that happened, but who was responsible internally, for the best part of 30 years, and the saga is still not over.”
Former external BBC advisers Michael Prescott and Caroline Daniel faced questions from MPs following the broadcaster’s doctoring scandal
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PARLIAMENT TV
He added: “And yet the BBC, as recently as a couple of years back, after they were condemned in the Dyson report which looked at what was happening, the Princess Diana interview was still withholding internal information, which Andy Webb tried to get at by freedom of information requests, but initially he was denied and they were told he was told initially there were 70 memos here.
“Then mysteriously there were 2,488 and they were massively redacted when they came out. Now that’s the epitome of cover up and lack of transparency, and yet this is still going on, a saga that’s lasted for 25 years.”
Taking aim at the BBC, Mr Keighley told GB News: “So that pinpoints that the BBC’s internal monitoring processes and their internal awareness of their responsibilities is in a terrible place.”
As Martin highlighted that the BBC are able to conduct “internal investigations” unlike other national news broadcasters, Mr Keighley explained: “This is an area I’ve been campaigning on for a very long time.
“The reality is that the legal structure, the BBC, are their own judge and jury of output. We challenged that in a judicial review earlier this year and astoundingly, the verdict in that judicial review was that the BBC would only ever countenance from external sources reviews which were based on single programme items.”
He added: “Now my organisation, Newswatch, has been submitting reports based on systemic review of the type that Michael Prescott was talking about, and yet they would never even consider that kind of report.
“Our reports are up online, there are over 40 of them done over the years, and they show that there is absolutely systemic bias, mainly in the coverage of the Brexit issue, which is where we look mainly. But that’s indicative of the problem of a whole.”
Offering a singular “solution” for the broadcaster, the ex-producer suggested the BBC needs an “independent ombudsman” who would be responsible for any complaints.
Mr Keighley told GB News that there needs to be an ‘independent ombudsman’ at the BBC to deal with complaints
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He concluded: “The only way of solving this, as I say, is a much more transparent approach, and I think that there should be an independent ombudsman responsible for BBC complaints, not the BBC itself.”
Addressing the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Mr Prescott admitted he witnessed “incipient problems” at the Corporation.
He said: “We were finding the odd problem here, the odd problem there. And the crucial thing was, when I say odd problem here and there, every single thing we spotted, as per my memo, seemed to me to have systemic causes.
“The root of my disagreement and slight concern even today is that the BBC was not – and I hope they will change – treating these as having systemic causes. There’s real work that needs to be done at the BBC.”
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