Behaviour Of The Director General Designate Of The BBC

EDM number 384 in 1992-93, proposed by Rhodri Morgan on 30/06/1992.

That this House urges John Birt, BBC Director-General Designate, and David Frost, currently bidding for the Channel Five franchise to explain how a Granada World in Action programme, planned as an expose of David Frost's Paradine Productions business dealings and including an interview by Mr Birt of Mr Frost in Manhattan in November 1970, in which Mr Frost broke down and cried when Mr Birt put allegations to him, was never shown; calls on Mr Birt to explain any causative link between the decision by Granada to pull that programme and his appointment and promotion shortly thereafter as producer of the Frost Programme; notes allegations that in Mr Birt's subsequent ascent of the television career ladder at London Weekend Television at Weekend World, then Head of Current Affairs, as co-producer with David Frost in 1977 of the Nixon Interviews, Controller of Features and Current Affairs and Director of Programmes, Mr Frost's patronage as a founder of London Weekend Television was critical to his advancement; believes that the public standing of the future Director-General of the BBC must be beyond reproach; further notes the announcement that the Frost Programme for which TV-AM paid ú368,000 a year up to its last showing on 28th June is to switch to the BBC for an undisclosed sum; and calls upon Mr Birt to make a full disclosure of the circumstances of the suppression of the 1970 World in Action programme, in the absence of which persistent doubts will remain concerning his suitability for the most vital post in the United Kingdom in public service broadcasting.

This motion has been signed by a total of 7 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.