CULTURE SECRETARY BACKS BBC OVER KATRINA COVERAGE

Jowell backs BBC over Katrina coverage
Steve BusfieldFriday September 23, 2005
MediaGuardian.co.uk
Culture secretary Tessa Jowell will this weekend back the BBC over its coverage of Hurricane Katrina on GMTV's Sunday Programme.
The BBC found itself at the centre of a storm earlier this week after Rupert Murdoch reportedly quoted Tony Blair allegedly criticising the corporation's handling of the New Orleans disaster.
But Ms Jowell will back the BBC's journalism in her appearance on the Sunday Programme.
"When you have attacks from one side or another it probably means - if I were a governor of the BBC - that you're getting it about right," she will say.
"The BBC governors take very seriously their responsibilities for accuracy and impartiality and it's a judgment that has to be reassessed and calibrated almost on a day by day basis."
Ms Jowell will also be asked in the interview about the question of low pay among young staff working for independent TV production companies.
"I think there's a very important spirit here which is fantastic for young people ... to get work experience and the opportunity to try out a potential career in production. But what you can't do is to have an industry that relies on this free, or very cheap, unskilled labour," she will say.
"There is an obligation - not just on the BBC - but on independents generally to make sure that they do provide proper employment and proper opportunities for training.
"In the long run their interests are not served by trying to make programmes on the cheap and since we reviewed the codes - particularly in relation to rights - the financial position of most independents has stabilised and improved considerably. "My message to them is think very carefully about the justice and indeed your bottom line in relying too much on unpaid cheap labour. See yourselves as one of the pioneers that are training the future generation."