BBC suspends phone-in competitions after breaches

The BBC suspended all phone-in competitions today after an internal investigation revealed programmes including Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sports Relief featured fake competition winners.

On each occasion, the "winning caller" heard on air was a member of the production team posing as a viewer.

World Service pop programme White Label, CBBC show TMi and BBC 6 Music's Liz Kershaw Show also duped viewers in a similar way.

The six new cases follow the revelation that Blue Peter persuaded a child to pose as a competition winner, which resulted in a £50,000 fine by regulator Ofcom.

BBC director-general Mark Thompson said: "The behaviour of a small number of production staff who have passed themselves off as viewers and listeners must stop.

"We must now swiftly put our house in order."

The revelations are the result of a BBC-wide search of around one million hours of broadcast footage since January 2005, ordered by Mark Thompson in the wake of the row over a trailer which wrongly implied that the Queen had stormed out of a photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz.

Mr Thompson unveiled a package of "tough measures" to crack down on editorial breaches.

All 16,500 programmes and content staff will be required to attend a new mandatory training programme "focusing on the issue of honesty with audiences".

"Nothing matters more than trust and fair dealing with our audiences," Mr Thompson said.

"The vast majority of the 400,000 hours of BBC output each year, on television, radio and online, is accurate, fair and complies with our stringent editorial standards.

"However, a number of programmes have failed to meet these high standards. This is totally unacceptable. It is right that we are open with the public when we have fallen short and that we demonstrate that we take this very seriously indeed."

In an internal broadcast, Mr Thompson told staff: "There is no excuse for deception. I know the idea of deceiving the public would simply never occur to most people in the BBC.

"We have to regard deception as a very grave breach of discipline which will normally lead to dismissal.

"If you have a choice between deception and a programme going off air, let the programme go. It is far better to accept a production problem and make a clean breast to the public than to deceive."

Two of the shows mentioned - The Liz Kershaw Show on BBC 6 Music and White Label on the World Service - were repeat offenders.

Kershaw's programme was pre-recorded but presented as if it was live.

Neither the competitions nor the prizes existed - all of the callers featured were members of the production team or their friends.

White Label announced fake winners of a CD competition on more than one occasion when no winning entries had been received.

Although most incidents occurred before the highly publicised Blue Peter breach came to light, the Comic Relief fake took place two days after.

The investigation into BBC output is continuing and Mr Thompson said it was "possible further historical incidents could emerge".

He noted that competitions on Radio 1, Radio 2 and local BBC stations had also been "poorly organised and breached guidelines".

The suspension of all phone-related competitions on BBC TV and radio will begin at midnight.

Mr Thompson also announced an independent inquiry into last week's blunder in which a trailer for BBC1 documentary A Year With The Queen was edited to appear as if the Queen had walked out of the sitting with Annie Leibovitz.

Production company RDF Media has accepted responsibility for the editing.

But Mr Thompson told the Trust there were "serious questions for the BBC to answer about its role in this deeply regrettable incident and to learn lessons from it".

He said in a statement: "We know that fundamental public trust in the BBC is very high. But recent events show that we cannot take that trust for granted.

"The BBC Trust has charged me and my senior colleagues with working with BBC staff to put this right and reduce the risk of a recurrence.

"This will take humility and perseverance, but it can and will be done."

In its own report, the Trust said it was "deeply concerned that significant failures of control and compliance within the BBC, and in some cases by its suppliers, have compromised the BBC's values of accuracy and honesty".

It added: "The director-general's interim report to the Trust about additional editorial failings shows further deeply disappointing evidence of insufficient understanding amongst certain staff of the standards of accuracy and honesty expected, and inadequate editorial controls to ensure compliance with those standards.

"We have made clear that we regard any deception or breach of faith with our audiences as being utterly unacceptable."

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