Neil Report recommends how to strengthen BBC Journalism

The Neil Report, published in full today (June 23 2004) by the BBC, lays out wide-ranging recommendations and guidelines to strengthen BBC journalism in the future.
Clearly stating the “core values of BBC journalism”, the Report emphasises the importance of continuous training and of learning from both existing best practice and from the specific circumstances around the broadcast, which led to the Hutton Inquiry last year.
The Report's most ambitious recommendation is that the BBC should establish a college of journalism under the leadership of an academic principal.
Announcing the publication of the Report, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson said: "The BBC does not have the public's trust as of right; it has to earn and maintain it. "The Neil Report will enable us to do this, highlighting what we do well and what we could do better. "It is a template for strengthening BBC journalism in the future and I have asked Mark Byford, Deputy Director-General, to oversee the immediate implementation of the Report's recommendations in full."
Richard Sambrook, Director, BBC News, said: "Ronald Neil and his team have conducted a thorough and searching examination.
"We have worked closely with them and welcome their very constructive conclusions. We have already begun the work of rapidly implementing the Report's recommendations."
The review group was set up in February 2004 by the then Acting Director-General Mark Byford to identify the editorial lessons from Lord Hutton's Inquiry and Report. It was led by the BBC's former Director of News and Current Affairs Ronald Neil and included a former Editor of ITN and BBC editorial executives. Ronald Neil said: "In carrying out our work over the past three months, the review group recognises the formidable professionalism that already underwrites the BBC's journalism every day.
"However, setting out to improve, strengthen and learn from the experience of life's events when they go wrong is a proper ambition.
"It is a stance of strength, not a weakness. "I and the rest of the review team are very grateful for the considerable openness of BBC journalists and programme-makers in assisting us in our task."
The Report recommends that journalism training in the BBC should have a substantially enhanced role and investment. It says: "As the largest employer of journalists in the UK, the BBC has an obligation to take the lead in strengthening training in craft skills and promoting debate about journalistic standards and ethics in broadcasting."
In addition, the Governors have now approved an overhaul of BBC complaints procedures and the findings will be published in the near future. Some aspects of these reforms have been informed by the handling of the complaint about Andrew Gilligan's broadcast (referred to in the Neil Report).
(GB)