Petition asks BBC Trust to make recruitment of director general a more “open and transparent” process
The BBC Trust is facing mounting pressure to rethink the way in which it is recruiting the new director general of the BBC in light of a petition asking for a more open and transparent process.
The proposal from campaign group openDemocracy has asked that prospective candidates should be made to publish a public statement of their vision for the organisation. The petition has stated that an open recruitment process will be critical in securing public trust in the BBC after the series of mismanaged scandals.
The petition says: "We call on the BBC Trust not to compound this by a further purely secretive appointment. We call on any candidates to publish a short outline of their vision of how the BBC should be taken forward and the principles that lie behind it. And we call on the trustees who will make the appointment to request and publish such statements from those they consider or shortlist."
Anthony Barnett, founder of openDemocracy, told the Guardian: "The BBC can't regain the trust of the public unless it can learn to trust the public itself, and it can't do that unless it is willing to argue what it stands for.
"[Publishing statements] is extremely easy for them to do. It immediately makes the appointment process a simple one, and a public one."