Race row study finds TV still too white

A report by Trevor Phillips, commissioned by Channel 4 in response to the Celebrity Big Brother race row, has concluded that television is still failing to properly reflect ethnic diversity.

Research found members of ethnic minorities generally thought representation of different cultures was "very poor".

Phillips, the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said: "Most ethnic minority participants felt the media had a responsibility to reflect Britain’s diversity across all genres and was failing to do so in three main ways: by relying on tokenistic and stereotyped representation of characters; by representing extreme and exaggerated characters; and by failing to reflect the realities of contemporary ethnic minority culture.

"All these shortcomings were attributed to some extent to the perceived lack of a representative power base within UK media."

Channel 4 paid Phillips, a former television journalist and producer, to put together a report in a private capacity. The decision followed huge public outcry over remarks made by Jade Goody about Indian actress Shilpa Shetty, which were perceived by many to be racist, during Celebrity Big Brother 5.

Phillips last night called for a levy on broadcasters and large independent producers to encourage ethnic diversity.

"What we need is a mechanism to bend resources and action in the direction of making things happen," he said. "I believe the best way to do this is to use the industry's own market mechanism, the commissioning process, and to tilt the playing field decisively in favour of rewarding diversity."