BBC's Cliff Richard scoop raises questions about fairness to suspects

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/17/cliff-richard-bbc-exclusive-criticised

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BBC News was thrilled with its Cliff Richard scoop, complete with all the drama of a police raid. Getting big stories and breaking them first is exactly what its new news boss, the former Times editor James Harding, has asked for. The corporation's critics have been quick to react. They are divided on whether the main guilty party is the BBC (Mail on Sunday) or the South Yorkshire police (Sunday Times).

But there are serious questions about how both the police and the BBC handled this.

The story started in an entirely unremarkable way. A BBC journalist did his job and got a tip-off. We don't know where and quite rightly the BBC is not going to tell us. The odd thing is what happened next. The police chose to enter into an arrangement with the BBC giving it exclusive notice of and access to the forthcoming raid.

The police have since said a number of apparently contradictory things. Having strenuously denied they were the BBC's original source – as the BBC confirmed – they were forced to admit to the exclusive deal they did with the broadcaster. They then claimed it was only done to prevent the BBC reporting the story before the raid, thereby tipping off the subject and potentially wrecking the whole inquiry. But this doesn't bear scrutiny. If the BBC had wrecked an inquiry it would be facing even more serious problems today.

Next, the police tried to argue that the publicity had brought forth more potential victims, reinforcing the idea that they were more than willing participants in the BBC "deal". The police have now written to the BBC's director general, Lord Hall, to complain. But it's very hard to imagine what about and, given their plain and active role in the story, really looks for all the world like back-covering after the event.

For the BBC the story suggests a change in strategy. The contrast with the way it dealt with Rolf Harris – who was not named until he had actually been charged – could not be more stark. The BBC used never to name suspects first, sometimes leading to criticism that it was too conservative.

The BBC's real mistake would appear to be that having got its exclusive and the deal with the police it simply went over the top producing too much coverage – including a helicopter with aerial images of the singer's home – exposing itself to the sort of questions usually directed straight at the tabloid press about fairness to suspects in these high-profile historic sex abuse inquiries.