UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy Cools Attacks On BBC, Praising 'Big Strides' In Gripping Crises
Nandy has been highly critical of the BBC in a series of unusual interventions this month, including raising concerns about the leadership of director-general Tim Davie and questioning why no one had been fired over the How to Survive a Warzone debacle.
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In comments on Monday, Nandy said: 'My job is to make sure that we uphold the highest standards and that the public and parliament can have confidence in the BBC.
'I think, given the recent events, that has been called into question, but the BBC in recent weeks has made big strides to try to reset that relationship with the public, and show that they have grip on the very very serious issues.'
Her change of tone follows Deadline reporting on concerns about the culture secretary jeopardizing the BBC's independence by personally attacking Davie and repeatedly bypassing the corporation's governance conventions.
Nandy said it is 'not for the government to say who should and shouldn't work at the BBC,' but added that the broadcaster was right to acknowledge 'catastrophic failures' in recent weeks, not least live-streaming Glastonbury act Bob Vylan chanting 'death to the IDF.'
In a breathless day, the BBC published an internal report concluding that Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone committed a 'serious' breach of editorial rules by failing to declare that it was narrated by the child of a Hamas minister. Meanwhile, an independent report substantiated 45 misconduct allegations against former MasterChef host Wallace.
Following the Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone report, media regulator Ofcom has launched its own investigation into the documentary, produced by Hoyo Films. 'Having examined the BBC's findings, we are launching an investigation under our rule which states that factual programmes must not materially mislead the audience,' a spokesperson said.
Danny Cohen, the BBC's former television chief, suggested that an editorial leader should be fired over the documentary. 'The serious journalistic failings of this documentary have severely damaged public trust in the BBC. This is not an isolated incident but part of a pattern of systemic bias in the BBC's coverage of the war,' he said.
'The BBC's failure to recognise this and take real action is a serious leadership failure. This looks like a classic case of 'deputy heads must roll' and that is nowhere near good enough. As head of news Deborah Turness has questions to answer.'
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