BBC suspends phone shows; Decision follows competition deceptions

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), July 19, 2007

Byline: By JOHN BROPHY

THE BBC today suspended all its phone-in competitions after a string of viewer deceptions involving Children In Need, Comic Relief and Sports Relief.

Announcing the move, Director-General Mark Thompson described the problem as totally unacceptable.

All three of the charity appeal programmes featured fake competition winners, while the World Service, children's channel CBBC and radio station 6 Music also duped the public. Liberal Democrat culture spokesman Don Foster said: "Such lapses in judgment are wholly unacceptable and broadcasters now have a lot to do to regain the public's trust."

But Mr Thompson insisted the mistakes occurred mainly as a result of technical hitches. "It is clearly a grave matter but the right thing to do is to take steps to make sure we close these gaps," he said.

The investigation is continuing and Mr Thompson said it was possible further incidents could emerge. The six new cases came to light after he ordered an investigation in the wake of the royal row over a BBC1 trailer which wrongly implied the Queen had stormed out of a sitting with a photographer.

The findings were presented at a meeting with the BBC Trust, which had demanded an explanation.

The Trust called the editorial breaches deeply disappointing and ordered an immediate inquiry.

Mr Thompson unveiled a package of measures to make sure such breaches never happen again.