Tag: BBC

BBC publishes terms of reference and announces Independent Advisor for gender disparity review

Stuart Mitchell

More women than men are prosecuted for TV Licence fee evasion. A Government review in 2015 found that the BBC was not operating a discriminatory policy but recommended that it look at the issue in more detail. As a result, the BBC undertook an in-depth review in 2017 and found that underlying societal factors drive this disparity. Changes were subsequently made to TV Licensing processes in an attempt to reduce it. Earlier this year, the BBC committed to undertaking a second review to better understand why the disparity still exists.…

Read More

The BBC’s Award Winning 50:50 Project sees strong progress on Disability and Ethnicity representation

Stuart Mitchell

The BBC’s 50:50 Project has published its Impact Report 2022. The report reveals a 35 percentage point increase in BBC teams reaching their disability contributor* targets and 7 percentage point increase reaching their ethnicity targets, after 18 months of monitoring these for the first time. Since its launch in 2017, teams have measured the gender of contributors in their content. The methodology used has been adopted by 750 teams across the BBC, with 250 of those teams now also committed to monitoring the representation of disability and ethnicity contributors. BBC…

Read More

BBC files UN complaint about online violence towards women journalists

Stuart Mitchell

The BBC World Service has, on 23 March 2022, filed a new urgent appeal to the United Nations (UN) against Iran over the online violence faced by women journalists working for BBC News Persian. Women journalists at BBC News Persian face daily, relentless online attacks and harassment, including threats of rape and death. Today’s complaint addresses the current risks to women journalists working for BBC News Persian. Examples of the online violence and harassment they face include: Threats of rape and death directed at women journalists and their families in…

Read More

Broadcasters unite to create ‘passports’ to support inclusion

Stuart Mitchell

Seven of the UK’s main broadcasters have come together to create access and inclusion ‘passports’ that will remove barriers and support better inclusion of disabled people and other colleagues at work. Channel 4, ITV, BBC, STV, UKTV, S4C and Paramount UK have consulted to agree a similar approach which will see broadcasters encouraging staff to communicate their adjustment needs. The access and inclusion passports, adopted from an initiative formally introduced at the BBC in 2019, will be confidential and will support conversations with line managers to  ensure disabled colleagues and…

Read More

New research highlights importance of impartial news

Stuart Mitchell

New research has found 87% of adults say impartial news is more important to them personally than coverage that reflects their own points of view.  The number increases to 91% when people consider the importance of impartial news to wider society. The research was conducted by Yonder Consulting, on behalf of the BBC. The research indicates people continue to turn to the BBC, with half of adults using BBC outlets first to find out what is happening in the UK and around the world, ahead of any other news source. …

Read More