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Press Releases
Business - Governors' Review of Impartiality
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The Board of Governors has today published the terms of reference and announced the
Chairman and members of the independent panel it has appointed to review the
impartiality of the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage of business.
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Sir Alan Budd, Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford and a former member of the
Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, will chair the independent panel
of six.
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He will be joined by: Stephen Jukes, head of Bournemouth University's Media
School and former head of global news at Reuters; Chris Bones, currently Principal
of Henley Management College and a former director of Cadbury's Schweppes; John
Naughton, Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open
University; Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam; and Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson,
Britain's best-known Paralympic athlete.
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As with past reviews, the panel will invite written submissions from representative
bodies and interested parties.
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These will include umbrella bodies such as the CBI
and Institute of Directors; the TUC and trade unions; think-tanks and business
schools; and consumer groups, including The National Consumer Council.
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The panel
will also call witnesses, who may include 91Èȱ¬ staff, and take account of comments
from individual licence fee payers.
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The panel, which begins its review this week, will report to the 91Èȱ¬ Trust in
Spring 2007.
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The panel will receive output analysis conducted by Leeds University
and audience research by The Blinc Partnership, both commissioned by the 91Èȱ¬ Governance
Unit.
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The panel's report and all its research will be published in full.
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Sir Alan Budd said: "Business matters to all of us, whether as consumers, employees
or investors.
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"It is essential that the 91Èȱ¬'s coverage of business, particularly in
news and current affairs programmes, reflects its importance in our daily lives and
meets the high standards for impartiality that we expect of the 91Èȱ¬.
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"I am
delighted to be chairing the independent panel. I look forward to our discussions
and to studying the results of the commissioned research.
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"We shall welcome written
submissions from individuals and groups and want to hear from all those with views
on 91Èȱ¬ coverage of business as viewers, listeners and producers."
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91Èȱ¬ Chairman, Michael Grade, said: "Impartiality has always been central to the
purposes of the 91Èȱ¬ and a key expectation of licence fee payers. Its delivery is
rightly under constant scrutiny.
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"The series of reviews has provided the Governors
with valuable insights and helpful recommendations for improving crucial areas of
the 91Èȱ¬'s output.
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"Business is an increasingly important topic to a wider range of audiences. I am
grateful to Sir Alan and the panel for agreeing to review the 91Èȱ¬'s output in this
area and, along with my fellow Trustees, look forward to receiving their report
next year."
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Impartiality and accuracy will remain the responsibility of the 91Èȱ¬ Trust under the
next Charter, which comes in to force on 1 January 2007.
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Notes to Editors
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1. Terms of Reference for the review are: "To assess the impartiality of 91Èȱ¬ news and factual coverage of business with
particular regard to accuracy, context, independence and bias, actual or perceived;
to assess whether the 91Èȱ¬ portrays a fair and balanced picture of the world of
business and of its impact on society more generally; to focus primarily on
business coverage in mainstream output though specialist business programming
should also be considered; and to make recommendations to the 91Èȱ¬ Trust for
improvements where necessary."
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2. Independent Panel biographical information:
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Sir Alan Budd (Chair)
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Alan Budd has been Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford since 1999. Before that
he was a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England. From 1991
to 1997 he was Chief Economic Adviser to HM Treasury and Head of the Government
Economic Service.
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He was a member of the Securities and Investments Board and was Group Economic
Adviser to Barclays Bank. He was Deputy Chairman of the Economic Policy Committee
of the OECD.
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He was a founder member of the UK-Japan 2000 Group. He is currently a Senior
Adviser to Credit-Suisse, a member of the Advisory Board of London Economics, a
consultant to the G8 Group, New York, an executive editor of World Economics and a
governor of the National Institute.
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Stephen Jukes
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Stephen Jukes is head of Bournemouth University's Media School. Before taking up
his appointment in February 2005 he was a visiting scholar at Green College,
Oxford.
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Stephen Jukes has spent much of his working career as a foreign correspondent at
the international news agency Reuters, specialising in foreign policy, business and
international monetary affairs. In his final position there he oversaw news
operations worldwide and was also responsible for legal, regulatory and ethical
affairs.
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He also ran Reuters book publishing programme, producing more than 10
titles on finance and current affairs. Ìý
Christopher Bones
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Chris Bones was appointed Principal of Henley Management College on 1 January
2005. Chris was previously Group Organisation Effectiveness and Development
Director for Cadbury Schweppes, taking responsibility for Executive Education and
Development Culture, Communications, Change, Knowledge Management and Capability
Development.
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In his 22 years in business Chris has worked for Shell, Diageo (both in GrandMet
and Guinness) and Cadbury Schweppes. He started in industrial relations, working
on the UK's largest oil refinery and progressing through management teams in
brewing, retailing and property to Board roles covering Europe, Africa and Asia
Pacific.
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He has significant international business experience and a reputation as a leading
practitioner in executive education and development, change and HR strategy. He is
a Board member of the Skills for Government, the sector skills council for the
Civil Service.
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Barbara Stocking
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Barbara Stocking has been Director of Oxfam GB since May 2001. During the last four
years, Barbara has led Oxfam's response to humanitarian crises in Afghanistan,
Iraq, Sudan, for the Tsunami and the Pakistan Earthquake.
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Previously a member of the top management team of the National Health Service, in
her eight years with the NHS, Barbara worked as regional director and most recently
as Director of the Modernisation Agency, charged with modernising the NHS.
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Barbara
has broad experience of healthcare systems, policy and practice, including periods
at the National Academy of Sciences in the USA and with the World Health
Organisation in West Africa.
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Professor John Naughton
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John Naughton is Professor of the Public Understanding of Technology at the Open
University and Director of the Faculty of Technology's Relevant Knowledge project.
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He is also a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge where he is Director of the
College's Press Fellowship Programme.
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He has been a weekly columnist on the Observer since 1987 and is now the paper's
internet commentator. He was for nine years the paper's Television Critic, and won
the Critic of the Year Award three times during his tenure.
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He was for many years the non-executive chairman of One World International, and
the Director of the Ndiyo Project, a not-for-profit enterprise which has devised a
non-proprietary IT infrastructure for small organisations and developing countries. He is a member of the Public Advisory Board of iCreative Commons UK and was a
member of the working group which drafted the Adelphi Charter on Creativity,
Innovation and Intellectual Property.
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A Brief History of the Future, his best-selling book on the development and
significance of the internet, is published in the UK by Phoenix and in the US by
Overlook Press.
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Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson
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Tanni Grey-Thompson is Britain's best-known Paralympic athlete, having performed at
world-class level in distances ranging from 100 metres to the marathon. She has 16
Paralympic medals including 11 golds.
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Tanni has been active in the administration, management and politics of sport and
has occasionally presented radio and television programmes.
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91Èȱ¬ Goverance Unit
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