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BBC attacked for competition scandal sackings

21/09/2007

The BBC has been accused of "scapegoating relatively low-level people" in its response to complaints about rigged competitions.

Luke Crawley, assistant general secretary of the Bectu union, said on this morning's Today programme that he thought more people in "higher levels of the corporation" should be held to account for their part in the lapses which had occurred.

He was speaking in response to yesterday's news that the BBC admitted four more breaches of its editorial standards.

One of the breaches involved a Blue Peter kitten named Socks – who should have been named Cookie if the participants in an online vote had had their way.

According to a report in yesterday's Telegraph, around 25 people have been dismissed as a result of the scandals.

"It's not for me to call for people to be sacked but you do have to wonder why there's one law for low-level people and a completely different one for senior people," Mr Crawley said.

He claimed the recent furore over a misleading trailer for a documentary about the Queen, for which the BBC was forced to apologise, had not seen similar levels of disciplinary action.

"I understand it's the subject of investigation but I have a feeling that when the investigation concludes, do I think the person's going to be sacked? I'm not sure that he is. And that doesn't seem right to us," Mr Crawley added.

He insisted that his members were just as concerned about the BBC's image as senior management.

"One thing that I think the BBC is underestimating is just how angry the staff are about this; our members also take this very seriously indeed," he said.

"They believe that trust in the BBC is an important part of public-service broadcasting which is why they work for the BBC."