The BBC handled just under 32,000 editorial complaints between April and June 2006.
These ranged from a small number of complaints about potentially serious breaches of editorial guidelines through to a much larger collection of views about programme content and scheduling.
The key themes which emerged are detailed below:
Offence :
Some viewers felt that Kelvin MacKenzie was an inappropriate presenter for World Cup Scandals, given the comments about the Hillsborough Disaster in the Sun newspaper when he was its editor. Others complained about questions asked by Jonathan Ross about Baroness Thatcher in his interview with David Cameron (Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, 23 June). There were also complaints about the drama series, The Line Of Beauty, from viewers who objected to graphic homosexual scenes and felt that it should have been broadcast much later in the evening, if at all.
News :
There were complaints about an interview with Paul Gadd, aka Gary Glitter, broadcast on news programmes on BBC One and BBC Radio 4. Complainants felt that it was wrong to broadcast the interview from Vietnam where Gadd is serving a prison sentence for molesting young girls.
Complaint About BBC :
Complaints were received about The Governors Programme Complaints Committee decision not to uphold a complaint against Chris Moyles on Radio 1 for using the term ‘gay’ to mean ‘rubbish’. There was concern that this signalled acceptance of some homophobic language.
Bad Example :
Some viewers were concerned that Ian Wright had condoned cheating when he talked about the practice of ‘diving’ in football in Match Of the Day Live : England v Hungary.
Standards of Presentation :
Listeners complained about the decision that Chris Evans would take over from Johnnie Walker as presenter of the Drivetime programme on BBC Radio 2. Some felt that Evans was unsuited to the role and whilst others regretted that Johnnie Walker was leaving the show.
Scheduling :
Viewers complained about unbilled scheduling changes, especially those caused by overruns in sports coverage such as Wimbledon, The World Cup and World Snooker. There were also complaints about too much sport in general, especially if it was on BBC One and BBC two at the same time. Other viewers complained about lack of coverage of particular matches.
Other Complaints :
There were complaints about changes to the Radio 5 Live 606 message boards, particularly the decision to close club specific boards.
The BBC's responses to some recent issues are available at www.bbc.co.uk/complaints
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