TftD Appeal to the BBC Trust. Episode 4

Just to let you know this is still chugging along quite nicely. In my last post I reported that the BBC Trust Unit had decided that the question of lack of impartiality in TftD was a matter for the General Appeals Panel rather that the Editorial Standards Committee. This seemed quite a strange decision and one of the appellants had the happy notion to appeal against it. As a result both the Editorial Standards Committee and the General Appeals Panel will now be sitting on the same day to determine the appeals from different points of view.

Before that happens the BBC Trust will invite the BBC Executive to provide a statement on the issues of impartiality and how it seeks to meet the Public Purpose remit across particular programmes, series or services. The BBC Trust will then prepare a briefing paper which it will circulate to the appellants for final comment before the appeals are heard.

We are already familiar with the BBC Executive's defence of TftD from Mark Damazer's various communications. Unless they can pull some new rabbits out of the hat the situation is, I think, beginning to look quite promising.