Box office or let down? It’s down to the questionspublished at 15:33 GMT
Katie Razzall
Media editor
This committee should be box office.
But, if previous evidence is anything to go by, it also has the potential to be a total let down.
There are so many questions that need answering. Most pressingly:
- Did the BBC try to cover up mistakes instead of admitting them?
- Why did it take so long to apologise for the Panorama edit?
- Is the BBC systemically biased and is there a split inside the Board – or even evidence of a coup as some have claimed?
But the most pertinent question might also be whether the MPs will succeed in asking the right questions to get to the truth.
We’ll hear first from Michael Prescott, the former external adviser to the BBC whose leaked memo with its claims of systemic bias kicked off the whole controversy. He hasn’t spoken publicly up to now.
We need to know whether his concerns were really ignored – and whether he is right about the BBC. Also whether he has an agenda, which he’s denied.
He’ll be sitting next to Caroline Daniel, who was the other external advisor on the committee that ensures editorial standards are adhered to. She sat in the same meetings.
It will be interesting to see if she agrees with Prescott or takes a different view. She didn’t, to our knowledge, write a memo complaining about systemic problems at the BBC.
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