Prescott addresses issues of bias forcefullypublished at 16:04 GMT
Noor Nanji
Cultural reporter
After all the drama of the last few weeks, it all boils down to one key question: is the BBC institutionally biased?
It has been widely reported that Michael Prescott's leaked memo – which sparked this whole controversy – raised concerns about “systemic problems” of bias in some of the BBC's reporting.
So it was very interesting to hear his response to the question of whether he thought the BBC was institutionally biased. He was quite emphatic about it. “No, I don’t.”
Prescott makes it clear that his concern was more that there were “beginning problems” and that the BBC was not addressing them as it should.
He says: “The root of my disagreement and slight concern to date is that the BBC has not viewed these as systemic causes – and I hope that will change. There is still a lot of work to be done at the BBC.”
We will wait and see what other senior figures say later in this session.
If some board members believe that the BBC actually suffers from systemic bias, but others do not, then it is not clear where this ends.
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