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WATCH: BBC's internal awareness is in a 'terrible place', ex-Producer tells GB News
Nov 24, 2025
The BBC's "supreme lack of accountability" has been torn apart by an ex-producer as he launched a scathing attack on the broadcaster.Speaking to GB News, David Keighley said the broadcaster's "internal awareness" is in a "terrible place" as two former advisers faced a grilling from MPs on its recent doctoring scandal.FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
I think that was a supreme lack of any accountability there
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from the BBC chairman, Samir Shaw. I agree entirely. I think I've been monitoring BBC output professionally
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for 26 years now. And what it highlights is that the BBC
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is its own judge and jury still, and they don't seem to be able to
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even though, obviously, Michael Prescott was an external advisor, They don't... That was just..
0:30
They appointed two when that system was put in place after the Sirota report
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They just don't seem to be institutionally able to take on board
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that the BBC's impartiality is the central duty of its charter, and in order to make sure that that is the case
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they need to be absolutely transparent with audiences rather than to themselves
0:56
that that is actually happening. And in order to do that, there needs to be much more
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systemic internal reviewing of the output. And another question that he was asked there
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Samir Shah by the board, were the accusations severe enough, in your opinion
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to warrant these resignations? No not in my opinion they weren he said It just makes you wonder David what planet these people are on I sorry to be so brusque Clearly the findings here were provably anti
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provably anti-Israel, provably pro-trans, provably pro-net zero. It's in clear black and white
1:40
And yet, to the BBC chairman, nothing to see here. Absolutely. And I jump slightly to another development that there's been over the past week, which is the publication of the book by Andy Weber, former BBC journalist, about the Princess Diana affair
2:01
And his findings, which obviously are in parallel to this, are absolutely astounding
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The reality is that the BBC have continued to cover up about the Princess Diana interview
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not the actual forgery that happened, but who was responsible internally for the best part of 30 years
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And the saga is still not over. And yet the BBC, as recently as a couple of years back
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after they were condemned in the Dyson report, which looked at what was happening in the Princess Diana interview
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was still withholding internal information which Andy Webb tried to get at by freedom of information requests but initially he was denied and he was told initially there were 70 memos here
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Then, mysteriously, there were 2,488, and they were massively redacted when they came out
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Now, that's the epitome of cover-up and lack of transparency, and yet this is still going on on a saga that's lasted for 25 years
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So that pinpoints that the BBC internal monitoring processes, their internal awareness of their responsibilities
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is in a terrible place. And, David, I thought it was very, very revealing there
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A lot of people have said for too long the BBC has been able to mock its own homework, and you and I both know
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if there's an Ofcom complaint against the BBC, they're afforded the opportunity to try and deal with it internally
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before it goes to an efficient investigation. a luxury not afforded to broadcasters, for example, such as GB News
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And even here, you heard Samir Shah basically saying, I'd expect at Ofcom to have a quiet word, and it could be solved
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it could be sorted out quietly and internally. But then it got all over the Telegraph
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Heaven forbid the BBC has to face any form of external examination
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and criticism like any other news source on the planet. Yes and I mean again this is an area I been campaigning on for a very long time The reality is that the BBC are their own judge and jury of output
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We challenged that in a judicial review earlier this year. And astoundingly, the verdict in that judicial review was that the BBC would only ever countenance from external sources
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reviews which were based on single programme items. Now, my organisation, Newswatch
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has been submitting reports based on systemic review of the type that the chairman was talking about then
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and yet they would never even consider that kind of report. Our reports are up online
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There are over 40 of them done over the years, and they show that there is absolutely systemic bias
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mainly in the coverage of the Brexit issue, which is where we look mainly. But that's indicative of the problem as a whole
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The only way of solving this, as I say, is much more transparent
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and I think that there should be an independent ombudsman responsible for BBC complaints, not the BBC itself
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David Keighley, we have to leave you there. Excellent guest. Please come back on the show
5:29
That's fantastic stuff. Thank you
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