Wright on the BBC
Sir: Although some of the detail in Simon Freeman's article (`The BBC gets camera- shy', 8 August) is inaccurate, difficulties did exist over the proposed edition of Panorama on the Wright allegations. But these difficulties did not arise from sensi- tivity over the allegations as such. The problem was that I hold to the idea that lengthy current affairs films should pro- ceed after a period of research has revealed the outline and direction of a story and the means by which it can be told. I resist the idea of film expeditions which record their research and return to the cutting room many tens of thousands of pounds later to see if a coherent and useful story can be constructed from the footage. Quite often it cannot.
I did not cancel the Panorama project: when I returned from holiday, I learned that others had come to their own view that some months of work had not advanced the story sufficiently to justify an edition of Panorama. The work done so far will
LETTERS
surface — on Newsnight. And the issues raised by the Wright allegations and the Government's legal actions will be the subject of major programmes which are planned on BBC television and radio. John Birt
Deputy Director-General, BBC Broadcasting House, London W1
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