BBC's Keating worries on trust overreaction

BBC Two controller Roly Keating has expressed fears that a cultural over-reaction over trust in television may seek to remove essential qualities such as the employ of artifice in programme making.

"For an organisation like the BBC, the damage [the trust concerns] can cause means we have to do something about it," he explained. "Institutionally we have not overreacted. Culturally, we have to be careful. It takes time to work back. We can earn trust back - by doing what we do best. Wise professional judgement must kick in. TV - some points of TV - is predicated on artifice, the theatrical element."

Keating drew a "distinction between conceit and deceit" after stating that artifice is "the theatrical element" of television. Of conceit, he cited a typical cutaway sequence; of the latter, he said that there had clearly been occasions where programme-makers had "crossed the line".

He said he favoured a system whereby programme makers were less hesitant to "show their working" to audiences, and said that the development of editors' blogs by BBC News was an "important part of the landscape."