https://roughhousemedia.co.uk

Making the Media Work for You

Making the Media Work for You

020 8332 6200
info@roughhouse.co.uk

  • Our Services
    • Training courses
    • Video production services
    • Crisis communications consultancy
  • Our Team
  • Our Clients
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

A word about Secret Filming

by Ann Wright, August 26, 2011

There’s been a lot of focus over the past few months on the techniques used by journalists to get a story.

There’s is most definitely a valid discussion about what methods are justified and what aren’t and when certain activities are in the public interest and when they’re just interesting to the public.

Having worked in the BBC’s flagship Consumer Unit, which produces such stalwarts of public service broadcasting as Watchdog, I know for sure that there’s no way that many of the underhand, immoral and criminal activities that are exposed by the unit’s programmes could happen with some of the methods currently being condemned as part of the phone-hacking debate.

Yes, we taped phone calls.

Yes, we called people pretending to be someone else – now known as ‘blagging’.

Yes, we went on ‘fishing’ expeditions.

Yes, we used secret and hidden cameras to film undercover.

But we never did it without good reason.

We never did it without some lead or tip off from a member of the public, which we’d then investigated as far as possibly by conventional means.

And we were never allowed to film secretly without the editor of the Consumer Unit’s express written approval.

Being the BBC, to get this approval you needed to complete the inevitable ‘secret filming’ form.

And on this form, you had to provide justification of why you felt it was necessary to film undercover: suspicions of wrongdoing, proof that there was no other way to obtain the final piece of killer evidence, and most importantly why it was in the public interest.

 And none of this was a formality. Without the evidence, your filming wouldn’t be signed off.

We certainly didn’t do undercover filming lightly. Arranging it was complex, time-consuming, expensive and risky.

You needed the kit, you needed someone who could pull off pretending to be someone else without letting the mask slip, and you needed a back up team in place in case it went wrong.

Even once we had our evidence in the can, nothing was ever broadcast without documentary proof to back up our filming, and without being ‘legalled’ to within an inch of its life.

The subjects of the filming would be presented with the allegations and the proof we had, and offered the right to respond (generally they said no, in no uncertain terms!)

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailby feather

You might also be interested in:

  1. Going undercover (aka: my worst TV experiences)
  2. BBC: in defence of public service
  3. The Secret of the Perfect Soundbite
  4. Video production training: filming a sequence

Filed Under: All posts, News and Views, Television and Video Production Tagged With: BBC, Secret Filming, Watchdog

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

"Professional approach and service. Professional journalists and crew - just professional"
Hudson Rose Communications

What are you looking for?

Stay in touch: sign up for our newsletter

* = required field

We offer a 15% discount to charities

CharityComms Partner
West London Business Awards Finalist 2020

Menu

  • Our Services
  • Our Team
  • Our Clients
  • Blog
  • Contact Us

Rough House Ltd

Oriel House
26 The Quadrant
Richmond
TW9 1DL

020 8332 6200
info@roughhouse.co.uk

Stay in touch: social media

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on LinkedInFollow Us on E-mail

Registered Office

2 Dukes Court
Bognor Road
Chichester
PO19 8FX

Registered in England No.03647107

© Rough House Ltd 2020

Privacy Policy

Terms of Use

Copyright © 2021 · Epik on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This site uses cookies: Find out more.