Amanda Powell lecture

The first guest speaker in JOMEC’s online lecture programmewas BBCi Wales Editor Amanda Powell.Ms Powell discussed the fallout of the Neil Report, which was the BBC’s internal response to the Hutton enquiry. The report set accuracy and precision as the BBC’s paramount concern. Ms Powell said: “It must be robust and tested evidence and reinforced but note-taking.”

This was of special importance to BBCi because the web is more intransient than broadcast or print. Where newspapers are tomorrow’s chip wrappers, a web page can be accessed forever, and therefore a journalist can be accountable for lack of accuracy years down the line.

What I found interesting was when Ms Powell said even edited and removed material can be subject to defamation claims. If a claimant can produce a printed article, even if it has since been removed or doctored, the evidence will stand up on court.

This has major implications for rolling stories. For example, with the Jean Charles de Menezes case, if the BBC had reported ‘a terrorist has been shot’, rather than ‘a suspected terrorist has been shot’, the de Menezes family could have sued for defamation.

This also has legal implications for blogs. I therefore hope I have not misrepresented Ms Powell.