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Governors’ review of services News

Overview

Each hour, each day, the BBC transmits some three hours of news on 14 of its national radio and television networks. bbc.co.uk/news also puts out several hundred stories each day.

On each medium, and for each outlet, the news is tailored for its particular audience: children watching Newsround on the CBBC Channel; British Asians listening to BBC Asian Network; bbc.co.uk users checking the latest sports stories on their PCs; drivetime listeners catching up with Radio 4’s PM on their car radio, or evening viewers watching the Ten O’Clock News or Newsnight.

Although this output of news is huge, and hugely diverse, what draws it together and makes it distinctively BBC, is that it shares the same underlying core values. These are independence, impartiality and honesty.

These values always come under intense scrutiny, but never more so than in the year under review with the Hutton Inquiry. Important lessons have been learnt to ensure that journalism remains a key strength of the BBC. And as this review shows, BBC News displayed many strengths, not least the way BBC journalists reported the Hutton Inquiry itself.

42 BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2003/2004

BBC News

Remit

BBC News aspires to be the world’s most trusted news organisation: independent, impartial and honest. It aims to be truthful and fair, offering journalism that explores multiple viewpoints and gives voice to a wide range of opinions. BBC News seeks to act in the public interest and to resist pressure from political parties, lobby groups or commercial interests.

The major domestic story of the year – the Hutton Inquiry – posed particular problems for the BBC. Day after day, BBC journalists had to report – independently, impartially and honestly – on the behaviour of other BBC journalists, their own managers, the Director-General, the Chairman of the BBC and indeed ourselves as Governors. An edition of Panorama was commissioned and to ensure it pulled no punches, the usual line of editorial management (through the Director of News to the Director-General) was changed to make the Deputy Director-General – who had played no part in the Hutton narrative – the ultimate arbiter of whether the programme complied with the BBC’s editorial guidelines.

It is clear – not least from widespread favourable press comment – that the potentially acute problems posed by the BBC reporting impartially on itself were dealt with effectively across all BBC platforms.

There was some concern that the Hutton Inquiry might weaken audience trust in the BBC, but survey evidence indicates that the public’s trust in the BBC actually increased post-Hutton. Public approval of BBC news and current affairs in particular dipped slightly during the summer and autumn of 2003 but recovered by the end of the year.

423 million page impressions for bbc.co.uk/news in March

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foreign BBC news bureaux

For more broadcasting facts and figures, see pages 58 to 67 and 136 to 146

The main international story of the year was the war in Iraq and its aftermath. The conspicuous lack of national consensus here meant that, once again, the BBC’s impartiality came under intense scrutiny. BBC News passed the test. An ICM poll in April 2003 indicated that it had sustained its position as the best and most trusted provider of news.

The coverage of the war itself did have some limitations. There were times when military sources (forecasting the imminent fall of Basra, for example) were not treated with enough scepticism; other organisations had made technological advances that sometimes provided more vivid television coverage, and current affairs special programmes did not make the expected impact. But there was much to be proud of too, both in the breadth and depth of the coverage. The BBC successfully broadened the angle of vision to include a good range of Arab and Muslim opinion, and there was outstanding defence analysis on Newsnight and The World at One from Mark Urban.

In the aftermath of the war, there has been strong coverage and analysis, with the BBC able to deploy its rich resource of foreign bureaux to respond to the developing international repercussions. John Simpson’s Panorama, In the Line of Fire, deservedly won an RTS award, and Peter Taylor’s series, Third World War: Al Qaeda, and Maurice Walsh’s Pipeline Politics on BBC Radio 4 valuably explored a broader geopolitical struggle.

BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2003/2004 43

Governors’ review of services News

Away from Hutton and Iraq, there have been some notable innovations. Drama has been strikingly used to support analysis (in If… on BBC Two) and to engage audiences in public policy issues (in, for example, The Day Britain Stopped, about a fictional UK transport crisis).

On BBC One, the popular current affairs strand, Real Story with Fiona Bruce, steadily increased its audience through each of its three runs and will extend its run this year; and This World on BBC Two drew a larger average audience for foreign affairs than its predecessor, Correspondent.

There were some strong pieces of investigative journalism including Panorama’s Seroxat: Emails from the Edge, a follow-up to its original investigation into possible side-effects from the widely used anti-depressant based on audience response to the earlier programme; File on 4 has had another strong run, and BBC Radio Five Live’s documentaries have established themselves as a muscular presence on the network.

BBC News 24

Work to improve the quality of BBC News 24 bore fruit with the channel’s relaunch in December 2003. We wanted to see the distinctiveness of the channel reinforced by offering an agenda that is more analytical, more international and more diverse than its competitors, and which gives compelling and serious journalism a higher priority than market leadership. It is too soon for us to make a definitive assessment of the success of the relaunch, but early signs are encouraging.

Analysis on the channel has been strengthened, partly through the introduction of a new feature, Fact File, supported by BBC News’ Analysis & Research team and presented by Nick Higham, and partly through giving BBC News 24 better access to senior BBC correspondents who now appear regularly on the channel to share their expertise.

Domestically, the breadth and diversity of coverage has been increased by building a closer relationship with BBC newsrooms outside London. This has brought to the national audience strong stories that previously had only been seen locally. A similar process to increase the breadth of international coverage is under way with the BBC’s network of 44 foreign bureaux – though there is more work to be done here. More time and prominence has been given to business news.

Breaking news continues to pose difficult challenges. An important aim of any 24-hour channel is to be first with the news, and BBC News 24, with access to the world’s largest newsgathering resource, cannot escape the obligation to improve its responsiveness to breaking stories over time. But we are clear that it has to do this without compromising its commitment to accuracy and we recognise that a more detailed checking process may sometimes mean that BBC News 24 is not always the first for breaking news. A new set of guidelines and editorial processes recognise this challenge and aim to support the channel in delivering its commitment to speed and accuracy.

Although market leadership is not the key priority for BBC News 24, there are early signs that audiences are responding well to the changes. In January 2004, the first full month since the changes were put into effect, BBC News 24 outperformed Sky News in both weekly and monthly reach in multichannel homes, and for the first time in two years BBC News 24 moved ahead of Sky News in being perceived as the channel best for news.

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BBC Annual Report and Accounts 2003/2004

BBC Parliament

BBC Parliament became a full-time service in June 2003, broadcasting 24 hours a day (previously the channel broadcast only exceptionally in parliamentary recesses and at night). The extra air time has enabled the channel to offer additional coverage of debates and committees, plus further opportunities to see analysis programmes. Awareness of the channel has been improved through trails on BBC One, BBC Two and BBC News 24, and these have been effective in directing viewers to live coverage of key debates – recent examples include the Budget, and debates on tuition fees and on the Hutton Inquiry.

We are disappointed that Freeview viewers do not receive the service in full screen and we will continue to make clear this is a priority while recognising the capacity constraints and the responsibilities of the Freeview Board.

bbc.co.uk/news

Usage of bbc.co.uk/news and of the news services on interactive television have continued to grow steadily. bbc.co.uk/news is consistently the most widely used area of bbc.co.uk (reaching 26% of the online population) and generates the largest share of page impressions.