Latest news with #DeborahTurness
Telegraph
14-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
BBC to expand controversial Verify fact-checking unit
The BBC is to expand its Verify fact-checking unit despite several controversies and accusations of political bias. Tim Davie, the broadcaster's director-general, announced plans to 'build Verify across more services globally' and give it a greater role in local UK reporting as part of a mission to 'nurture trust'. The unit was launched by Deborah Turness, the chief executive of BBC News, in 2023. But it has since become one of the corporation's most contentious brands, accused of making factual errors and promoting flawed journalism. Danny Cohen, a former BBC director of television, has accused Verify of anti-Israel bias in its reporting on Gaza. He said the service was 'a major contributor to the damage being done to the BBC's reputation and its commitments to impartiality and accuracy'. It also emerged that Verify used a Labour Party activist to back its analysis of government figures on the farm tax. However, Mr Davie has thrown his weight behind the unit. He said it had an important part to play in the BBC being 'the world's most trusted news provider'. BBC 'hunting for fair funding model' The director-general announced the expansion of Verify in a speech to staff entitled 'A catalyst for building trust'. In the remarks, he reiterated his opposition to the BBC becoming a Netflix-style subscription service. Looking to the future of the licence fee, he said: 'Universal payment is not over.' However, he conceded that the system needed an overhaul. 'The current licence fee works and is delivering the content you see. I think it is a very good system but we are saying that, based on changes in audience behaviour and huge changes in the world, the system should be reformed and should be modernised,' he said. Mr Davie added: 'What we want is a way in which everyone pays for the BBC fairly, and that is what we're hunting for.' The broadcasting boss also said he would like to 'supercharge' the BBC World Service and more than double its audience to one billion people a week, but said the scale of the plan required 'a few hundred million more [pounds] than where we are today'. He also said the corporation was considering launching its own device so that older people who do not have smart televisions can access Freely – an existing online streaming service backed by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Meanwhile, in a question and answer session after his speech, Mr Davie was asked by one of his reporters if Gary Lineker had broken guidelines earlier this week when he shared a video by Palestine Lobby, a campaign group, which featured an 'anti-Semitic' rat emoji. A terse Mr Davie replied: 'I'd just say the BBC's reputation is held by everyone and when someone makes a mistake it costs us. 'We absolutely need people to be exemplars of BBC values and follow our social media policy, simple as that.' A spokesman for Lineker said the Match of the Day presenter had not noticed the emoji when he reposted the clip on Instagram, but had deleted it after learning of its symbolic meaning. The presenter said in a later statement: 'It was an error on my part for which I apologise unreservedly.'
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Leaked Emails Show BBC Chiefs' Concern Over Confidence In Bullying, Harassment & Whistleblowing Procedures
EXCLUSIVE: A BBC staff survey has exposed a 'really concerning' level of confidence over how the corporation handles bullying and harassment complaints, according to internal emails from the corporation's news boss and interim content chief. The memos from Deborah Turness and Kate Phillips, both sent to their teams this week and seen by Deadline, hone in on misconduct as a key issue, coming as a high-profile workplace culture review gets set to publish in just a few days' time. More from Deadline Kirsty Wark To Receive BAFTA Fellowship: Broadcaster & Journalist Will Be Awarded The British Academy's Top Honor BBC Behind 'P Diddy: The Rise And Fall' Doc; Channel 4 AI Trailer; SXSW London Premieres; Rudi Völler Sky Show; Karlovy Vary's John Garfield Tribute - Global Briefs Louis Theroux On Returning To The West Bank After 15 Years For BBC Doc 'The Settlers' & Being "Perpetrator Focused" - Guest Column Phillips' email said that, 'really concerningly,' confidence that bullying or harassment concerns will be dealt with appropriately had dropped by 6%, according to the staff survey. In her email to her team, Turness noted: 'Our scores on how we handle bullying and harassment are not where they should be, with 48% thinking we deal with concerns appropriately and only 43% of people saying they have confidence in our whistleblowing policy.' Overall, Deadline understands 58% of BBC employees believe bullying or harassment concerns will be dealt with appropriately and 51% say they have confidence in whistleblowing policies. Turness' email went on to say: 'It's really important that this improves – we are committed to doing better.' She cited how the workplace culture review will 'include changes and actions that will be put in place to address the findings.' Sparked by ex-BBC News anchor Huw Edwards' guilty plea, the workplace culture review will publish Monday first to staff and then to press and the public, with chair Samir Shah telling staff two days ago: 'This is an important moment for our BBC.' Bullying at the BBC has been under the microscope following a series of allegations made against top talent and senior figures. Deadline revealed that one of Turness' top brass, Breakfast boss Richard Frediani, was recently given more power after facing allegations of bullying, favoritism and shaking a female colleague. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed that the BBC had upheld 39 bullying, harassment, and sexual harassment cases over the past three years, but only 13 people had faced disciplinary action and just one staffer was dismissed. Director General Tim Davie has previously said he wants Change Associates, which conducted the workplace culture review, to make practical recommendations about how managers can create a culture where there is 'zero tolerance' for wrongdoing. The corporation already offers wellbeing resources, a bullying and harassment helpline and a counselling service. A BBC spokeswoman said: 'We take all forms of bullying, harassment and misconduct incredibly seriously. We want the BBC to be a place where expectations on standards and behaviour are clear and where people feel confident in raising issues or concerns, if they do occur. That is why we launched the Workplace Culture Review, which will be published shortly.' Best of Deadline Everything We Know About The 'We Were Liars' Show So Far 'Wednesday' Season 2: Everything We Know About The Cast, Premiere Date & More 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More
The Guardian
01-04-2025
- General
- The Guardian
‘I can't cope with it any more': newsrooms scramble to retain audiences amid the big switch-off
When Deborah Turness, the head of BBC News, informed her staff recently that she was shaking up how they worked as part of a drive to combat 'the growing trend of news avoidance', she had in mind the likes of Dave Ayres, a handyman from Leeds. 'I used to have the news on the TV every morning for an hour or so as I got the children ready for school and completed my household tasks,' he said. 'Now it has literally been switched off and unplugged. I can't cope with it any more. It's just too much and there's nothing I can do about it.' Though he dips into his favourite news apps occasionally in the evening, he now strictly limits his news consumption. He's not alone. The Guardian has been contacted by a series of one-time news junkies who are now seeking to restrict their news intake after suffering from disturbed sleep or a downturn in their mood. A related concern is affecting the sleep of Caroline Waterston, the Daily Mirror's editor-in-chief. 'The biggest challenge right now that's keeping me awake is the under-35 audience,' she said this week, adding that if news companies can figure out how to reach them, they could also offer a big opportunity. Across newsrooms around the world, strategies are being launched to reach news avoiders, a cohort of refusniks behind a long-term decline in news engagement. The proportion of people who say they selectively avoid the news to some degree increased three percentage points last year to 39%, according to a survey across 17 countries by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Since 2017, it has increased by 10 percentage points. Over the last decade, the number of people getting any news online, whether through a news website or on social media, fell across every age group. In fact, the news avoiders break down into three groups. The first is a growing group of former news consumers who are dialling back, the second is a group who have never engaged with news in the first place, while the third group worrying media executives is young people, who appear to have lost trust in established news brands. The problem has been accelerated by changes to social media algorithms and search engines that mean fewer people are finding their way to news sites. 'The perception is definitely that it's getting worse,' said Benjamin Toff, the director of the Minnesota Journalism Center and the co-author of Avoiding the News. 'Part of that perception is based on the digital analytics data that many of these organisations are looking at. 'On the audience side, there is a degree of fatigue and exhaustion. A lot of people just feel, for their own mental health, they want to curtail the amount of news they're paying attention to. Meanwhile, younger people who are using Instagram and TikTok, where the ability to include links to content outside of those platforms is a major challenge, are probably contributing to the decrease in [news site] traffic.' The response in newsrooms has been varied, but there are a few clear trends. To deal with the boom in content and declining free time, curation is king. Newsletters with a few handpicked stories, podcasts delving into a single subject and a reduction in story counts have already emerged as early winners from the news avoider war. Personalisation is the next frontier, with some newsrooms already using newsletters personalised using AI. 'If the personalisation algorithm takes into account personal interest and what's trending now in a relevant way, you can increase retention by double-digit numbers,' said Danny Lein, the founder of the Twipe tech company, which pioneered personalised newsletters at the Times. The firm has since rolled it out across seven international newsrooms. 'Finding that good mix is really key. If it's only based on personal interest, you get echo chambers.' Turness believes personalisation is part of the answer at the BBC. The corporation has a lot of personal data that could help it tailor products, but it also has strict rules on the use of AI and has not yet been clear on its plans. There are also dangers. 'We tend to find that people aren't so keen,' said Craig T Robertson from the Reuters Institute. 'If you're personalising a news feed or news homepage, there's a sense that they're missing out on other things. It's not like music or movies.' Then there's the problem of negativity and a sense of powerlessness – another theme that emerged among news avoiders contacted by the Guardian. 'We need to feel uplifted, encouraged and hopeful, not oppressed and afraid,' said one. After discovering that a third of those ditching their subscriptions complained of news fatigue, executives at Spain's started looking at a new product that concentrated on the best news of the month, or stories with a constructive angle. Dagens Nyheter in Sweden is another outlet consciously including more positive pieces even on difficult topics. The 'constructive journalism' movement, which began in Denmark and encourages more stories on progress and problem solving, is gaining ground. Oliver Duff, the editor of the i Paper, said this week that it was often seen as a 'dirty word in newsrooms', but said it needed to be taken seriously because 'our audience disagrees'. As for winning over Gen Z, many are concluding that overcoming their different habits and lack of trust requires a radical reimagining of what newsrooms do. In Scandinavia, publishers such as Schibsted are spending more time explaining their editorial decisions. Duff also said there was a need to 'pull back the curtain' on the editorial process. 'You're explaining exactly why this author or this creator has got expertise on this story, or why Katie spoke to 18 sources in Whitehall to tell this story that's never been told,' he said. Likewise, Reach, which owns the Daily Mirror, is planning to use new studios to reach a younger audience with video – and some of their journalists are being encouraged to be more like influencers. Waterston said a journalist at a prominent court case was encouraged to talk about 'what it felt like for them sitting in the court. We should lean into that.'
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Research uncovers troubling flaw in AI chatbots that raises serious concerns: 'Playing with fire'
Recent research by the BBC showed that AI chatbots from four major companies are unable to accurately summarize or answer questions when prompted with information from specific news sources, amid a backdrop of increasing legal action against AI companies. Four AI chatbots — OpenAI's ChatGPT, Microsoft's Copilot, Google's Gemini, and Perplexity AI — were given content uploaded from BBC's website and then tasked with answering questions about content in the articles. Given 100 BBC articles, results showed that 51% of AI-generated summaries had significant issues, with 19% introducing new incorrect information. Many of the inaccuracies had misinformation about dates, people, and even misquotes from the articles. Deborah Turness, the CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs, expressed concern over the inaccuracies the test showed. "We live in troubled times, and how long will it be before an AI-distorted headline causes significant real-world harm?" she asked. "The companies developing [generative] AI tools are playing with fire." With the increased use of AI, especially atop results from Google, it is important for companies to improve the tools so that misinformation is not spread to the general public. There have also been adverse environmental effects from companies leveraging AI. Data centers consume massive amounts of water and other resources, and the poor user experience provided by AI services makes this usage wasteful. While Big Tech has made claims of taking initiatives toward clean energy to power the energy needs with less pollution, much of both the current and future power plans involve natural gas power plants, which send heat-retaining gases into the atmosphere that basically act as an unnaturally thick blanket of gas. Outside of its test, the BBC has blocked its articles from being used in AI results in Google searches. The BBC's programme director for generative AI, Pete Archer, said companies "should have control over whether and how their content is used, and AI companies should show how assistants process news along with the scale and scope of errors and inaccuracies they produce." Do you worry about companies having too much of your personal data? Absolutely Sometimes Not really I'm not sure Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Other companies have followed suit, such as Chegg, the New York Times, Forbes, and News Corp. Chegg, an educational tech company, filed a lawsuit against Google in federal court primarily concerned with copyright issues and lost revenue from AI results negating, or seeming to negate, a searcher's need to open a site to understand the information in its proper context. The others, meanwhile, have sued or threatened to sue Perplexity to stop using their content. Everyday consumers should pay attention to how large companies are leveraging AI while putting forth clean energy initiatives, looking out for corporate greenwashing and prioritizing usage with companies who have environmental concerns on the forefront. While a smarter future is possible by utilizing AI, users should still consider how a greener future might live alongside it. On a personal level, users can aim to lower their usage of AI tools unless the benefits seem to outweigh the costs, and it's worth trying the Google Chrome extension Ecosia, which replaces Google as your default search tool with a modified version of Bing that features zero AI results and even plants trees with the ad revenue it generates. AI has its place in the world, as Dr. Chris Mattman told The Cool Down in a recent interview, but that doesn't mean people don't need to be mindful of their usage. While one individual might not be enough to reverse the danger, making a collaborative effort is the first step in working toward a cleaner future for all. Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
Yahoo
28-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Questions still remain for BBC after damaging Gaza documentary
As guests sat down on the red cinema-style seats in the screening room of a plush central London hotel, nobody could have imagined that, less than a month later, the BBC would find itself forced to apologise for serious and unacceptable flaws in the documentary that was about to be shown. In the darkness, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone unfolded over an hour, telling in bleak and upsetting detail the story of Gaza's children over recent months of the war. Screenings are standard practice for media companies, primarily for outside press to review a programme ahead of broadcast. Also in the room was BBC News CEO Deborah Turness and other senior executives from the BBC's news and current affairs to view what one described as a "landmark" piece of filmmaking. But after the programme went out on BBC Two, it emerged that the child narrator at the heart of the film, 13-year old Abdullah, was the son of a Hamas government official. The outcry and accusations of anti-Israel bias and lack of transparency led the BBC to pull the film from iPlayer. Questions were asked in Parliament. Criticism continued about the programme's subtitling choices – including contributors using the Arabic word for "Jews" on camera, which was translated in the subtitles as "Israelis" or "Israeli army". Some argue that the BBC covered up antisemitism. Others have claimed the subtitles are closer to what the speaker intends rather than a literal translation. After an initial investigation, the BBC said the programme, which had been commissioned by the BBC and made by an outside production company, "fell short of our expectations". It launched a further review headed by the director of editorial complaints and reviews, Peter Johnston. He will look at whether editorial guidelines were broken and whether anyone should be disciplined. It's a reputationally damaging mess, but how could it have happened? How did the commissioners of the programme not know that the child narrator's father was a deputy minister for agriculture in the Hamas-run government? The BBC says it had asked the production company "a number of times" in writing during the making of the film about any connections he and his family might have with Hamas, a proscribed terrorist organisation by the US, UK and others. In a statement on Thursday the BBC said Hoyo Films, the maker of the film, acknowledged it "never told the BBC this fact". But what did it tell the BBC about the child? Crucially, the BBC failed to uncover the information itself. Embarking on a documentary about one of the most polarising and contested issues of our age was always going to be challenging. The talented director at Hoyo, Jamie Roberts, has won an Emmy award for his film about the evacuation of Kabul. He's award-nominated for a powerful documentary about the events of 6 January in the US. He also made a searing film for the BBC about the Ukraine war. But he hadn't directed a documentary set in the Middle East before. He was working with the Palestinian journalist, Yousef Hammash, whose Gaza reporting for Channel 4 has won him a Bafta and an Emmy last year. The BBC commissioners in current affairs will have known the programme wasn't without risk. In circumstances like this, it's even more difficult to understand how the failings that have driven headlines for days - and done terrible damage to the BBC's reputation - could have occurred. Programme-makers and commissioners have previously told me they draw up risk grids to ensure they have the answers to any criticism thrown at them about their documentaries. They check and check and check to ensure they won't face problems after their programmes go out - or if they do, that they have the counter-argument ready. Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4's head of news and current affairs until 2020, told BBC Radio 4's Media Show she would have done her own checks rather than relying on the independent company. "If I was making this film, I wouldn't just ask who the boy was, who his father was, who his mother was, I would ask for the entire family tree. They could easily have found out about him, it shows that due diligence was not done. "I didn't wait for people to inform me of things," she added. "I asked them the right questions." Byrne says in her view the film isn't "pro-Hamas". Watching it, I was struck by the efforts at balance. It contains voices who curse the leaders of Gaza. One of the children followed by the documentary, 11-year old Zakaria, says he doesn't like Hamas "because they started the war, they caused all this misery, this is wrong". A woman says "they are causing us harm". There's a conversation about why taking Israeli civilians hostage is wrong. But we also see the horrors and violence of what's taken place in Gaza - through the eyes of children. Zakaria, who hangs around the hospital to help the paramedics rather than remaining with his family because, he says, there's no food and water where they are, tells the camera he thinks he's seen 5,000 dead bodies. Renat who's 10 and is building up a social media presence with an online cookery show, describes drones that shoot bullets. She smiles and laughs wildly on camera, as she describes, still clearly traumatised, how a bomb just exploded right next to her as she was walking outside her apartment. As the press release put it, the documentary is an "unflinching and vivid view of life in a warzone". It's the kind of programme Turness said, as the BBC apologised, that her department "should be doing". But she added "Of course we have to get it right." The BBC brand is based on impartiality - on being trusted around the world. All of us in news and current affairs take fact-checking very seriously. Mistakes are sometimes made, of course. But on this occasion both the independent production company and the BBC made serious errors which threaten trust in the corporation. Since joining the BBC as head of news in 2022, Turness has prioritised transparency to grow trust. Not informing viewers about the child narrator's family story is the opposite of transparent. She will have trusted the experienced BBC commissioners who oversaw the programme to do the appropriate due diligence. They will have trusted the filmmakers and the executive working with them. This isn't the end of the story and questions still remain. What exactly did the BBC ask about the boy and his family's potential connections to Hamas? Hoyo Films has said it's "co-operating fully with the BBC and Peter Johnston to help understand where mistakes have been made". There's also the question about exactly how much was the "limited sum" paid for the young narrator's work - and whether that money ended up in the hands of Hamas. Yesterday in Parliament, Lisa Nandy said she had sought assurances from the BBC that it hadn't. The scandal comes in a week in which the BBC already was apologising over its failure to tackle behaviour by the DJ Tim Westwood - after a separate review that cost more than £3m. What's happened has damaged trust in the BBC in so many ways. Those who argue the corporation is biased against Israel will feel vindicated. Leo Pearlman, co-CEO of the major British production company Fulwell 73, told us on Radio 4 that the BBC has "gaslit the Jewish community" in the 16 months since October 7th and that this documentary parroted 'the propaganda of Hamas". For others who view the BBC as having anti-Palestinian bias, the decision to pull the documentary and apologise will confirm their beliefs. Artists For Palestine, which includes Gary Lineker, Anita Rani, Riz Ahmed and Miriam Margolyes, says the claims about the identity of the child's father are "misleading" and that to conflate his "civil service role" with terrorism is "factually incorrect". The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians has lodged a formal complaint against the BBC for taking down the documentary and "suppressing the testimony of Palestinians". It says the deputy minister for agriculture's role involves "food production relating to crops, fishing and livestock". What's unfolded since the programme's broadcast is unlikely to change minds on any side. The losers in all this are the young citizens of Gaza. The stories of the children in this film - and the suffering they have endured - aren't now being seen. Hoyo Films said it believes "this remains an important story to tell, and that our contributors – who have no say in the war – should have their voices heard". The BBC has made clear it has no plans to broadcast the programme again in its current form or return it to iPlayer. BBC criticised by 500 media figures for pulling Gaza documentary BBC pulls Gaza film as it carries out checks over Hamas links BBC review finds 'serious flaws' over Gaza documentary
