Mannion: BBC flouting news guidelines
Jason Deans, broadcasting editor
Wednesday August 17, 2005
ITV News editor-in-chief David Mannion has accused the BBC of flouting its own guidelines on having two sources for stories, after last night's 10 O'Clock News failed to credit ITV for its scoop on the fatal police shooting of an innocent man on the underground last month.
Mr Mannion said that by not crediting ITV News for the new pictures and information on the shooting, the BBC1 10 O'Clock News appeared not to give viewers any indication of where the story had come from. BBC News 24 also failed to credit ITV News for the scoop.
However, a BBC spokesman said the 10 O'Clock News did not breach the corporation's producer guidelines, because the new photos and information were referred to on air as an "apparent leak" and "alleged... paperwork".
"Clearly, the interest here centred on the evidence that was revealed, and not the recipients of the material," the spokesman added.
However, other broadcast news outlets did credit ITV News - including BBC network radio bulletins and Sky News.
Mr Mannion said he thought the failure to credit ITV News was an error, rather than a deliberate policy decision by BBC TV news.
"It's an error of judgment, particularly post-Hutton. I thought the BBC had a policy of double-sourcing stories. The only source on this one was ITV News, but they didn't tell viewers what the source was.
"I think it's an aberration, an error, not a policy thing. We got the story and nobody else did. BBC radio news credited us and so did Sky News.
"Our policy is that if a story is big enough, you can't ignore it, you have to do it. We don't see it as a denigration of our own operation if we credit other people. If the boot had been on the other foot, we would have credited the BBC."
The BBC's editorial guidelines, which were revised after the Hutton report last year, state that when identifying sources, the corporation "should normally identify on-air and online sources of information and significant contributors, as well as providing their credentials, so that our audiences can judge their status".
Mr Mannion was today full of praise for the anonymous source of the new information on the fatal shooting by police of Jean Charles de Menezes at Stockwell tube station on July 22.
The scoop, which featured secret documents and photos from the police investigation into the shooting of the innocent man, was first broadcast on ITV News's 6.30pm bulletin yesterday.
"I certainly think that the source has made a very brave and public-spirited decision. It's a very significant story," Mr Mannion said.
"Once we got the material, I think we covered it without any sense of bravado. We have more information and more photos than we have published. I think we dealt with it in the right manner.
"Obviously it's a very sensitive issue. It's not our job to make judgments but it is our job to reveal issues of public interest."
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email
editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
· If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication".