Don’t let BBC director-general Tim Davie hear you say the word “talent”.

With the launch of the BBC’s study into questionable behavior in the workplace following the Huw Edwards affair, Strictly Come Dance and Jermaine Jenas, the CEO said he had banned a word that had been common in the television industry for decades.

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Speaking to the BBC Today In the final minutes, Davie told presenter Nick Robinson: “We often refer to people like you as ‘talent’, but I’ve kind of banned that. You are a presenter, I am the leader of an organization and we are here to serve.

When Robinson later attempted to use the word again, Davie intervened to remind him that it was banned.

He said the BBC was “acting in good faith” to achieve a situation in which “everyone is treated equally, regardless of rank”. The new study, he added, “will be useful to us” in “sorting out this culture”.

Following the Edwards debacle, which ultimately saw the former newsreader given a suspended sentence for making indecent images of children, the workplace review was ordered by the council BBC administration. The work began in earnest late last week with the appointment of change associates who are looking at various ways the company can improve. Critics have pointed to the fact that the same organization investigated workplace culture more than a decade ago at the BBC and insiders told us they would do some dirty tricks in the coming weeks.

Davie said the problems run deeper than a hangover from a “boozy lunch” culture. “It’s about how people deploy their power in the workplace,” he said. “Many things, good and bad, are happening in the ‘new age,’ but one thing we should be reassured about is that things are getting better. People need to speak out and be heard. »

Davie was repeatedly pressed on whether the BBC would recoup the approximately £200,000 ($260,000) paid to Edwards between his arrest in November 2023 and his departure in April 2024. The BBC’s lawyers have looked into the situation, but Davie suggested the money wouldn’t arrive anytime soon.

“We have had a dialogue with lawyers, but we have not yet resolved the problem,” he said. “The ball is clearly not in my court on this one. It’s in his (Edwards).

“Uncontested propaganda”

Davie was speaking to the BBC as he prepared to deliver a speech to the Future Resilience Forum which will call for more investment in the BBC World Service, with the DG set to warn that Russia and China are filling the gaps left vacant by the World Service with “undisputed support”. propaganda.”

On Today this morning he pointed out that forced blackouts of the BBC Arabic, for example, have created a vacuum for these “malevolent powers” ​​in conflict zones like Lebanon.

The World Service was previously funded by government, but changes over the past decade have now seen it mainly funded by license fees, while the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office provides grants for specific projects.

“China and Russia see the benefit of investing heavily in media – bordering on pure propaganda, but often content to grab media assets, frequencies and broadcast in a world where 75% of the population does not have a free press,” Davie said. “We are very obsessed with the ins and outs of the BBC, but if you look at the macroeconomic trends they are worrying.”

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