Written evidence submitted by Paddy French, Rebecca Television (BIW 06)
1
I am the editor of the website Rebecca Television [rebeccatelevision.com], launched in 2010. It is the successor to Rebecca magazine (1973-1982).
2
Between 1999 and 2008, I was a journalist and later a producer on the current affairs programme Wales This Week at ITV.
3
In the 1990s I was an independent current affairs producer, gaining commissions from Channel 4, BBC Wales and HTV.
4
These included Miracle or Mirage: The Edifice Complex (BBC 2 Wales, co-presented with Jonathan Evans MP) and the Channel 4 Dispatches programme “Privateers on Parade” about privatisation in the water and electricity industries.
5
I also edit the investigative media website Press Gang which exposed News of the World “Fake Sheik” Mazher Mahmood’s false testimony to the Leveson Inquiry. The Inquiry published two statements from me on this issue.
6
In this statement I will restrict my comments to three areas: the impact of further efficiency savings, governance and accountability and ring-fencing of Welsh-language broadcasting.
7
The difficulty here is that there is no real information about the activities of BBC Wales. The organisation does not generate separate accounts for Wales.
8
This is a prerequisite for any kind of evaluation of the Corporation’s broadcasting operations. I would hope that the Committee would recommend that BBC produce detailed annual accounts for Wales. These accounts should also include detailed information about the cost of programming.
BROADCASTING GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
BBC WALES
9
For the past quarter of a century the governance of BBC Wales has been in the hands of a small group of people coalescing around the Talfan Davies family.
10
I have written extensively about this on the Rebecca Television website and the detailed critiques are to be found in the following articles. The web links are also given for ease of reference:
THE SON OF THE MAN FROM UNCLE
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER?
11
Even before Geraint Talfan Davies became Controller of BBC Wales, his family were influential figures in Welsh broadcasting.
12
He served a long and varied apprenticeship before he took up the reins and I have no quarrel with his appointment.
13
However, I believe that sometime in the 1990s the idea emerged that his protégé Menna Richards should replace him — and that, possibly, she would groom his son to succeed her. Patronage and nepotism thus became important factors in BBC Wales governance.
14
I have written about how programme-making became a pawn in this strategy. A proposed series about the Welsh Development Agency — which included allegations that National Governor Dr Gwyn Jones lied to the Public Accounts Committee — was axed by Menna Richards. I carried out the research for this programme and witnessed the events personally.
15
Menna Richards’ stated reasons for her decision (the subject matter was boring and she had never formally approved the project) did not stand up to scrutiny. One possible explanation is that it was deemed politic not to offend the Welsh business community because Menna Richards needed a non-broadcasting public appointment to strengthen her CV in her bid to succeed Geraint Talfan Davies. She later served a term as a director of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation.
16
Whatever the reasoning behind the decision, it was swiftly reversed when Dr Jones announced his intention to seek a second term as National Governor. Had he succeeded, he would have been in place when Geraint Talfan Davies stood down — and HTV’s critical reporting of the WDA while he was chairman might have adversely impacted on Menna Richards’ chances. Menna Richards decided to produce, at very short notice, a highly damaging Wales This Week programme on Dr Jones. The core of this programme centred on his false testimony to Parliament. He decided not to seek a second term at BBC Wales.
17
Menna Richards duly succeeded Geraint Talfan Davies and — with the exception of the censorship of the Dr Jones programme — I felt she was well-qualified. She too had served a long apprenticeship in Welsh broadcasting.
18
It is, however, during her reign as Controller / Director that governance took a much more severe knock. She gave a job to Rhodri Talfan Davies, son of Geraint Talfan Davies, and began to groom him to succeed her.
19
This was a different order of patronage to the situation which existed between her and Geraint Talfan Davies. She did not work for BBC Wales during his tenure, spending her time at HTV / ITV.
20
When personal tragedy hit Menna Richards in 2008 (the death of her husband Patrick Hannan), to her personal crisis there was added another — the fate of Rhodri Talfan Davies. His CV simply wasn’t strong enough to justify his appointment as Director.
21
Even so, he was short-listed for the job. But the interviewing panel decided not to appoint — and announced that the appointment would be re-opened. This affair is shrouded in mystery — not a healthy position for a public organisation.
22
After several months of stalemate Rhodri Talfan Davies was confirmed as Director. There were suggestions that his intention to live in Bristol — and send his children to English-speaking schools — was at the heart of the delay in appointing him.
23
At that point, it is important to stress that he was just 40, had never made a television programme in Wales — and he became the first head of BBC Wales to live outside the country.
24
Since he took over as Director, I have had a long-running argument with Rhodri Talfan Davies about the Corporation’s decision not to cover the investigation carried out by Rebecca Television into the North Wales child abuse scandal.
25
The investigation — The Case Of The Flawed Tribunal — was a long, detailed (and expensive) series of articles. I believed BBC Wales had a duty to cover the serious allegations which were made. The importance of this investigation was later brought home by the events which followed the Newsnight Savile / McAlpine crises. The latter led to Operation Pallial and the Macur Review of the North Wales Child Abuse Tribunal. I have made statements to both.
26
My complaints were brushed aside by both BBC Wales and the BBC Trust. I believe that Ofcom should take over regulation of the BBC — it’s a much more rigorous and robust system.
27
In the course of preparing a third (and as yet unpublished article — The Sister Of The Woman From Auntie) BBC Wales decided it would not answer any of my questions except in “truly exceptional circumstances”.
28
The background to this was an investigation into the links between Menna Richards and her sister Ceri Wyn Richards. Throughout Menna Richards’ tenure at BBC Wales, Ceri Wyn Richards, was an independent producer whose company Torpedo secured millions of pounds worth of commissions from BBC Wales.
29
Torpedo collapsed at the end of 2008 after Ceri Wyn Richards’ marriage broke down. The company went into liquidation, owing BBC Wales nearly £38,000. I have never been able to find out if the Corporation recovered this money.
30
Following this, a new company called Parrog was formed using Menna Richards’ Cardiff home as its registered office and with Patrick Hannan its only shareholder. My attempts at finding out if this company secured any commissions has come to nought. If it did, then Menna Richards does not appear to have declared her interest.
31
Later in 2009, Ceri Wyn Richards took control of the company. Again, my attempts to find out what commissions the company has obtained from BBC Wales have failed.
32
This issue attracted attention in Wales after an anonymous letter was sent to media outlets in London drawing attention to the links between Menna Richards and Parrog. Former BBC producer and Assembly member Jenny Rathbone raised the issue with the Corporation.
33
Caroline Thomson, chief operating officer, replied: “…Menna Richards has declared all business relationships between the BBC and members of her family in line with … stringent conflict of interest policies.”
34
However, there is no mention of Parrog in the UK BBC 2009-10 or 2010-11 accounts. Between 2005 and 2009 these same accounts declared the relationship between Menna Richards and her sister and Torpedo, revealing £1.1m worth of commissions.
35
In June 2014 I submitted a series of questions to BBC Wales in connection with this issue. I include them here in italics:
— can you tell me if BBC Wales awarded any commissions to Parrog in the calendar years 2009
— did Menna Richards and / or Patrick Hannan declare that the latter was the sole director / shareholder for the first six months of 2009 and that the company was registered at their home address?
— if they did so, was this prior to any commission being awarded?
— can you tell me what the commission or commissions were for, the amounts involved and the titles of the programmes finally transmitted?
— was it the result of a competitive tender?
— sometime in 2009 an anonymous letter was sent to national newspapers in London complaining about the preferential treatment Parrog was receiving. Was a copy sent to BBC Wales at the same time?
— the same letter apparently also made comments about Torpedo: is that true?
— then prospective AM candidate Jenny Rathbone, a former experienced BBC journalist, in 2009 wrote to the BBC Trust about the matter: can you tell me if there was a formal investigation by the BBC Trust?
I ask that question because Martin Shipton, in his Western Mail 20 August 2009 article on the issue, says that Sir Michael Lyons passed Rathbone's letter to Caroline Thomson who then replied
— could I have a copy of Thomson's letter?
[I subsequently obtained this letter from Jenny Rathbone.]
— can you tell me the number and value of commissions obtained by Parrog since 2009?
— can you tell me if Rhodri TD [i.e. Talfan Davies] has declared an interest in these commissions by virtue of the fact that Ceri Wyn Richards is a family friend?
— can you tell me if Mark Thomas Jones, the former business partner of Ceri Wyn Richards in Torpedo, has been successful in obtaining commissions from BBC Wales, either in his own name or with a company since 2008?
— when Torpedo Limited went into voluntary liquidation, the major creditor was the BBC in the sum of £37,650. The liquidator's accounts show no disbursements to creditors so I'm assuming that this sum was written off. Can you confirm?
— I assume this was for a programme that was never completed [unless, of course, it was taken over by Parrog] — can you tell the name of it?
36
In July 2014 I received the following official statement from BBC Wales:
"We have reviewed the position around your various enquiries. Given the grossly disproportionate amount of time and resource which we have already dedicated to your most recent enquiry but also to those over a much longer period, we will not be commenting in future other than in truly exceptional circumstances. Clearly, you are still free to pursue any enquiries via our Freedom of Information processes. These will be considered in the established manner.”
37
(For the record, I made an FoI application but all were rejected. Some of the refusals — such as the work commissioned by Torpedo prior to 2005 and to Parrog after 2008 had been included in the BBC’s Annual Reports between 2005 and 2008).
38
It is breathtakingly arrogant of the Corporation — a public body which gets most of its revenue from the television licence fee — to refuse to answer questions about the conduct of its own leadership.
39
There is another aspect of Menna Richards’ actions that deserves further scrutiny. In November 2010 Menna Richards took up a post as a non-executive director of Glas Cymru, the owners of Welsh Water. At this time she was still BBC Wales Director.
40
My understanding is that Directors are forbidden to take outside roles. I note that there is no mention of this in the BBC’s accounts for 2010-11.
41
My impression is that this was another matter that caused considerable concern in London. A note in the accounts of Glas Cymru states that she did not receive any remuneration from the company until March 2011. That was the month she left BBC Wales.
42
I also noted that Menna Richards joined the board of Glas Cymru while former BBC Wales Controller Geraint Talfan Davies was also a non-executive director.
43
This caused me to write two articles about Glas Cymru which, while not relevant to the issue of broadcasting in Wales, throw light on the power of the Talfan Davies clan in wider Welsh public life.
44
These articles are
THE GREAT WELSH WATER ROBBERY
http://wp.me/p2XhMu-hM
THE GREAT WELSH WATER CONSPIRACY
45
The obvious comment to make about the power and influence of the Talfan Davies clique is that the effect is “chilling”. No-one inside BBC Wales could possibly raise the issue of the amount of work done by Torpedo for fear of incurring the displeasure of the management. In a broadcasting network as small as Wales, such an action could be disastrous.
46
Similarly, it is not surprising BBC Wales has never subjected Glas Cymru to any kind of scrutiny since it was formed in 2000. For most of the first decade of the company’s existence period Geraint Talfan Davies was a director and his protégé Menna Richards was BBC Wales Director. Today, Menna Richards is the senior independent director of Glas Cymru while her protégé Rhodri Talfan Davies is BBC Wales Director.
47
This is not a healthy situation for a small country, struggling to keep pace with the rest of the UK.
48
I have already detailed my experience in the Dr Jones affair at HTV Wales in the 1990s. At that point I was an independent producer.
49
In 1999 I joined the company as a journalist on Wales This Week later becoming a producer.
50
During the decade I was with the company I experienced two examples where ITV Wales did not behave with the impartiality expected of a broadcaster.
51
The first was a programme about current Ofcom director Rhodri Williams. This was to have been based on the material which I later included in the Rebecca Television article:
A MAN OF CONVICTION?
52
This programme was not banned as such — it was simply that no decision was ever taken either to proceed or to drop it. I believe the reason was that HTV knew that Rhodri Williams was in line for the post of head of Ofcom Wales — and wanted him to have the job.
(53
There is a bizarre coda to this episode. The programme I planned to make about Rhodri Williams centred around an interview I did with Ron Jones, now of Tinopolis then of Agenda. The tapes of this interview sat on my desk for many years and when I left the company I took them with me, reasoning that the company wasn’t interested in them.
54
I then used the material for a Rebecca Television programme after I left ITV. For several years ITV Wales took no action but then, out of the blue, instructed lawyers to have the material returned. The result was that the programme had to be withdrawn.
55
I regarded this is as censorship by ITV Wales. I believe someone had moved against Rebecca Television in order to protect Rhodri Williams. A fuller account is given in the article
ITV BID TO GAG RTV
56
The second occasion where ITV Wales did not behave with due impartiality came with a proposed programme about David Pickering. Again the story is told in full in the Rebecca Television piece
A LICENCE TO CENSOR
57
On this occasion, managing director Elis Owen explicitly banned the programme because ITV Wales had the broadcasting rights to the Rugby World Cup and he feared the proposed programme might sour ITV Wales — WRU relations.
58
At the time Roger Lewis was the managing director of ITV Wales and, shortly after this episode, was appointed head of the WRU. The then head of news at ITV Wales, John Williams, later joined him at the union. There’s no evidence either played any part in Elis Owen’s decision.
RING-FENCING OF WELSH LANGUAGE BROADCASTING
59
I believe it is time for the creation of a separate Welsh Language Broadcasting Authority (WLBA) with responsibility for both radio and television including news
60
As part of this, I believe the BBC should cede the element of the licence fee used for Welsh broadcasting. All staff and relevant facilities should transfer to the new WLBA.
61
This would allow the WLBA to relocate to Welsh-speaking parts of Wales.
62
The separation of England and Welsh language functions would rejuvenate both.
63
BBC Wales could concentrate on English-language programming which is in need of a dynamic makeover. The current regime is staid and unimaginative.
64
BBC Wales would no longer need to have its head drawn from the dangerously narrow Welsh-speaking elite.
65
A new WLBA would add to plurality by creating a separate, independent news hub.
66
I believe the information in this statement to be true.
28 October 2015