Newsnight-mare
Had an urgent call from Zaria Pinchbeck MD of Z-PR (www.z-pr.com) last week. One of her major retail clients had been ‘secretly filmed’ by an undercover reporter from the BBC Newsnight programme, the client had done nothing wrong (true) and was pretty incidental to the Newsnight story, but what really mattered was that a young member of their staff had been filmed unknowingly.
Zaria had four hours to sort it. One option was do nothing. A short statement perhaps, but she wanted that secret filming out of the item.
Without getting too technical, broadcasters cannot use secret filming just to add drama. There has to be actual evidence of serious or significant anti social or criminal behaviour and it must be in the public interest. According to Zaria, there was NO evidence of serious or significant anti social behaviour by her client and certainly not by the young shop assistant. Sounded like drama to me as the BBC like nothing better than nailing some big name company.
I suggested she ask the producer for immediate written answers to the following, NB, she should do it, not the lawyers:
1. Was there actual evidence of serious anti-social behaviour? If so what?
2. Why did they not approach the client openly, the company had nothing to hide.?
3. How did (her client’s) behaviour sufficiently justify this invasion of privacy? A shop is private property even if the public has access
4. How was the young person filmed, sufficiently responsible to identify them in a TV investigation on Newsnight?
It worked (after a bit of horse-trading and lots of BBC bluster) the reference to Zaria’s client was so fleeting you’ld have missed it and the young shop assistant’s face pixilated beyond even her mother’s recognition. Zaria had a happy client and credit to the BBC too. They didn’t have grounds to push their Guidelines to the limit and backed off.