KINGSTON, Jamaica – THOSE of us in the Caribbean journalism profession who have long come to appreciate the excellent, almost reverential, ethical standards established by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), would always share the disappointment and sense of hurt whenever colleagues of this internationally renowned media institution fall victim to improper behaviour and activities.
Consequently, colleagues of regional and national media organisations would have empathised with those at the BBC and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) when the shocking exposé came last year of the Corporation's own internal sex scandal involving its high-profile Panorama television producer Jimmy Saville.
Now, the BBC, whose television and radio journalists have set such high professional standards in investigative journalism, may well have to probe, with haste, a complaint which, though insignificant compared with the enormity of the 'Saville sex scandal', is of much importance to this region's media, governments, private and other sectors.