Evening Standard comment: Tony Hall and the way ahead for the BBC

The BBC has had a rough week, with criticism over switching comedy and music channel BBC3 to online only, and a row over Radio 4 Front Row host Mark Lawson leaving amid accusations of “horrendous” bullying. An investigation into the BBC work environment in the wake of the Savile scandal, published last May, found extensive evidence of bullying as well as sexual harassment. But today director general Tony Hall tells this paper that the Corporation is now on top of the problem.

That matters, as Lord Hall takes the BBC forward after an exceptionally troubled period. From the row over the Hutton report in 2004, through the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross row in 2008 to the Savile scandal from 2012, the past decade has had a grim effect on BBC morale. The Corporation also faces financial challenges: because of the freeze in the licence fee, the BBC needs to find £100 million of savings, the reason for the changes to BBC3. Meanwhile, petty cuts are deeply resented by BBC staff in the context of the £100 million blown by former DG Mark Thompson on the ill-fated Digital Media Initiative or on huge payoffs to departing senior managers.

In his 11 months in the job, Lord Hall has already had a very positive effect, halting the sense of panic following Savile and preparing the Corporation for charter renewal in 2016. He is unflappable and a safe pair of hands, and the BBC badly needed that. But he also has to find a way to encourage innovation and risk-taking: too often the BBC’s bureaucracy and fear of offending the powers that be and sections of the print media stifle creativity. The BBC is one of our greatest national treasures: it has to stay sharp.

Sadly the comments of Neville Lawrence on the police’s mishandling of his son Stephen’s death will resonate with many black Londoners. In the wake of yesterday’s damning report on police dirty tricks and corruption following the 1993 murder case, Mr Lawrence said: “I now feel that I will never be able to trust these people.” The misconduct uncovered by yesterday’s Home Office report may be in the past but it has an impact on public trust today. And many will also share Mr Neville’s caution over the judge-led public inquiry into undercover policing announced by the Home Secretary yesterday: he says he is “very, very wary” of what will happen next.

The inquiry faces challenges: it emerged yesterday that the police had mass-shredded many documents relating to the case. But it also has to negotiate the simple fact that some undercover policing is necessary: most criminal organisations operate in secret. Yet undercover policing operations have recently faced major embarrassment, with revelations of wildly disproportionate campaigns against environmental campaigners. Police minister Damian Green said yesterday that the Metropolitan Police’s now-defunct Special Demonstration Squad had been “out of control”: how to keep such units under control is an important question for the future of policing. The Met must rebuild public trust — and remain effective.

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day, the annual celebration of women and their rights. Since its founding by German socialist Clara Zetkin in 1910, women’s position in Europe has been transformed. Yet still women and girls suffer sexual violence; others face forced marriage and female genital mutilation, targeted in an IWD speech today by David Cameron. For those reasons, we still need IWD: the fight for female equality goes on.