Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Or who guards the guardians? Primark and The BBC.

Stakeholder analysis can be used to show how the media can act as powerful agents of change. Broadcast documentaries can alter consumer behaviour, with damaging effects on a firm’s profits, costs, revenues and reputation. The Directors of Primark(part of Associated British Foods conglomerate) had to spend time responding to the programme, developing and cross checking their own CSR policies and employing experts to refute the claims. But what happens if the media get things wrong?

However, the BBC Trust has implied that The Corporation is going to apologise on air to Primark “over a scene in a Panorama documentary showing boys in a Bangalore clothing workshop…it was “more likely than not” that a scene, which showed the boys “testing the stitching” on Primark clothes, was “not genuine”.

How far this apology includes an out of court settlement or damages remains to be seen, but students should not forget Warren Buffet’s remark that it can take 20 years to build a reputation but only 5 minutes to ruin it. In 2008 the programme makers’ actions may have influenced consumers to buy fewer Primark goods, the firm may have lost revenue, and profits; but errors in this documentary have now damaged the reputation of The BBC. Rival private sector media groups will not miss the opportunity to hit out at The Corporation.

The trust or governing body of the BBC,  also criticised the corporation’s original efforts to investigate Primark’s complaints about the Panorama documentary. The Guardian pointed out that criticism was levied at the “editorial complaints unit (as it) broke guidelines on accountability. The trust criticised the ECU for failing to include Primark’s expert report in its findings in 2010, adding that the unit “appeared to have placed the burden on Primark to prove its case in this complex complaint”. This case has now raised questions about accountability and corporate governance at The BBC.The BBC Trust will not like these headlines both at home and abroad.

Panorama’s 2008 film Primark: On the Rack contained footage that was probably not genuine. “BBC told to say sorry for ‘fabricated’ Bangalore footage”

Primark have released a short robust video response on this coverage and today’s response from The BBC.

The media and pressure groups do not have a monopoly over the truth, but their actions can still prove to be damaging to a corporate reputation, as the BBC has found to its cost as it is now hoist with its own petard.

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