To tell the truth

If a serious factual programme distorts footage, clearly it’s right to be concerned. It’s important that this sort of thing isn’t commonplace within the broadcasting industry. But what about entertainment – what are the rules? The present lack of guidelines have resulted in endless media scandal surrounding a smorgasbord of popular, and not so popular, programmes. So where should the boundaries between reality and imagination lie?

In recent months, _Top Gear_ has been accused of staging a stunt in which James May appeared to crash an airship and cause an emergency alert at Norwich airport. The BBC has also fined the TV production company, Reef, for ‘routinely misleading’ viewers by allowing production staff to pose as members of the public in re-staged events.

Outcries over trust on TV are not new. The largest protest was over the July 2007 ‘Crowngate’ affair. The BBC and ITV temporarily stopped commissioning programmes from a media company called RDF Media after it emerged that promotional footage for a documentary about the Queen had been misleadingly edited. The outcry was so extensive that the controller of BBC1, as well as the creative director of RDF Media, resigned.

It was around this point that other revelations of ambiguity and deception in television seemed to spiral out of control. The BBC was fined more than £500,000 in 2007 and 2008 by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, as a result of TV and radio phone-in deceptions. In most instances, production staff members were drafted in as competitions winners, instead of a member of the public; in a few cases, the viewer decision was secretly overruled by executives.

ITV did not escape the wrath of the investigation, since shows such as _GMTV_, _The X Factor_ and _I’m A Celebrity…Get Me Out Of Here!_ were also shown to have deceived viewers through phone-vote modifications.

Since this period, television executives have attempted to crack down on misleading features by introducing stricter editorial guidelines, compliance directives and so-called ‘Safeguarding Trust’ educational modules for programme-makers. However, where can executives draw the line? While it is understandable that competitions, votes and factual content must not be manipulated, can entertainment programmes avoid the wrath of the more stringent compliance policies?

If a programme is produced for entertainment purposes and posited within the rarefied world of television, does it matter if the production company has to make changes to increase its watchability and amusement? Features of programmes such as _Top Gear_ are clearly not applicable to the lives of the majority of their viewers, so surely delivering the most escapist and incredible entertainment in any manner possible is the right way forward. Despite the ‘climate of fear’ that has been induced in recent times, it appears that the atmosphere is now one of retrenchment. Executives are currently urging programme-makers, particularly in entertainment genres, to expand their creativity and not feel stifled by editorial guidelines. According to BBC Director-General Mark Thompson, productions should not be afraid to ‘push boundaries’, stressing that there should be a ‘freedom at the BBC to take risks’.

Nevertheless the balance between restriction and a free-for-all is difficult to judge, especially when different entertainment programmes are viewed with different standards and intensity and when the slightest error is reported with enormous gusto.

As one popular entertainment presenter maintains, ‘Entertainment TV should always be true, but not real’. Are viewers really concerned if events are distorted, even if the end result is for their benefit, or is this another example of an over-exaggerated media furore?