“Poor handling of Savile allegations has damaged BBC’s reputation” claims PR survey
In the midst of the Jimmy Savile investigation the PRCA, the professional body for the PR industry, conducted a poll of over 150 PR professionals into the handling of the allegations by the BBC.
The poll has criticised the BBC’s response to the allegations of child molestation against Jimmy Savile with 55 per cent of the 159 respondents stating the BBC had handled the allegations either ‘poorly’ or ‘very poorly’, while only 4 per cent considered the BBC to have responded ‘very well’.
In response to how this might have affected the BBC’s reputation, 77 per cent of PR professionals agreed that the scandal had negatively damaged the reputation of the BBC, a mere two per cent believed it has positively affected its reputation and 21 per cent thought it had no impact.
The study also suggested that the Jimmy Savile allegations came at an inopportune moment for the BBC, as it battled criticism by the Public Accounts Committee for helping thousands of employees to avoid tax, further affecting how PRs viewed its handling of the situation.
Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA, commented on the poll: “Reputation is the cornerstone of any organisation, whether it is a private enterprise or a publicly owned corporation.
“The results of our poll show that the BBC has a long way to go to restore its reputation, and that it should reconsider its response to allegations against Savile.”