Controller whitewash claim

BECTU welcomes the "Queengate" Wyatt Report but is critical of BBC "double standards" by allowing the BBC1 Controller to resign.

The Wyatt Report, published today, into the so-called "Queengate Affair" concerning the misleading promotional footage the BBC's forthcoming documentary A Year With The Queen is welcomed by BECTU.

However, the union is deeply critical of the double standards demonstrated by the BBC in allowing the man responsible for the debacle to walk away rather than be sacked.

BECTU has represented junior staff who have had to go through a long disciplinary process with penalties up to and including dismissal, and were not offered the option of resignation.

Assistant General Secretary Luke Crawley said: "This decision stinks of hypocrisy. To allow the Controller of BBC1 [Peter Finchin] to resign rather than be sacked after such a grave error of judgement is incredible.

"Why should junior members of staff be punished whilst senior members of staff can escape the consequences of their actions by resigning?

"In the case of Alan Yentob, he admitted deliberately deceiving the viewing public by having someone else ask the questions in his ‘authored’ documentary Imagine series and is still employed!".

He added: "The Wyatt report specifically identified the failure of Peter Fincham to appreciate the seriousness of the pictures he was looking at.

"His elementary error meant that he misrepresented the Queen and, as a consequence, the BBC was forced - quite rightly - to issue a grovelling apology. Yet despite this he is not even disciplined."

BECTU members at the BBC are outraged by what they see as a whitewash and believe that the BBC still has long way to go in re-establishing trust with the viewing and listening public.