Edinburgh: Close BBC 3 and keep current affairs, says BBC’s Sweeney

Posted by Colin Crummy on 26 August 2007 at 22:02
Tags: Edinburgh 2007, Edinburgh International Television Festival

The BBC should kill its digital channels to prevent further cuts to its current affairs output, according to Panorama reporter John Sweeney.

Speaking in a panel session on the state of current affairs programming at the Edinburgh Television Festival, Sweeney argued that further BBC cuts due this autumn could devastate the department and that BBC bosses needed to change their ways if they wanted to ensure audience trust and programming quality.

“They cost money [trust and quality], ” said Sweeney, “the BBC current affairs department is a pale shadow of what it was, empty desks, people on short term contracts and that makes it very much harder to argue and challenge the bosses.

“The word is another round of cuts. Stop this. Don’t cut current affairs, the sharp end of the BBC’s public service commitment. Don’t cut This World Or Horizon or Storyville or The Money Programme. If economies have to be made then shoot a white elephant or two – god knows we’ve got a few of them.

“It would be better I believe – and this is a personal opinion – to close down BBC 3 or BBC 4 than cut current affairs again. If the
bosses are serious about quality and trust, stop cutting. Otherwise the future of the BBC might be an empty lump of concrete in Salford.”

Responding to Sweeney’s comments, Panorama editor, Sandy Smith that there was no suggestion that Panorama’s budgets would be cut in the next round of savings but added: “There needs to be time and money available to make programmes that don’t fit into 29 minutes.”

“It’s a content versus buildings and platforms argument which is emerging from the BBC and I don’t think either I or John would disagree with that.”

The two were panellists in a session at the festival on whether TV current affairs had lost its soul. Sweeney used the opportunity to defend his role in Panorama’s investigation into Scientology, in which the veteran reporter famously lost his temper on screen.

Channel 4’s deputy editor of news and current affairs, Kevin Sutcliffe attacked Panorama’s Scientology programme, saying it was not the piece about the religious cult that should have been made. “It failed its test for me as a piece of investigative journalism but it had a lot of other merits to it.”

Smith said the programme wasn’t the one the BBC set out to make but it was successful in bringing in a young audience. “The danger was someone would say lets make more of these shows, which they haven’t.”

Sweeney, responding to Sutcliffe’s criticism of the show said: “You got into a bit of a hissyfit, and think that if it’s interesting it’s not Panorama.”