Saturday 22 November 2008

BBC management statement on Brand show

BBC Management have submitted a comprehensive report to the BBC Trust on how two editions of The Russell Brand Show on Radio 2, which caused widespread offence, came to be broadcast.

The report, which again makes clear that the BBC Management regards this content as a very serious breach of its editorial standards, highlights unacceptable failures in editorial judgement and compliance which led to the offending broadcasts on the network.

A range of actions proposed by BBC management has been approved by the Trust. In addition, two very senior managers and a presenter have resigned and a major presenter has been suspended without pay for 12 weeks.

The BBC is determined to act on the lessons learnt from this incident, in particular to reinforce adherence to the BBC's compliance systems. This will be a major priority within the BBC's Audio & Music division.

The BBC Management accepts in full all the findings published by the BBC Trust today, including the decision of the BBC Trust to uphold the complaint against an edition of Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, broadcast on 2 May 2008.

In particular we will consider carefully the BBC Trust's ruling on the use of language and audience expectations. Management will reinforce due consideration of the editorial guidelines, a strict adherence to the editorial referral process and will exercise considerable care over the use of language, especially of the most offensive words or phrases.

BBC Press Office

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