Issues and ethics

In the middle of the 2003 Edinburgh International Television Festival, an event took place entitled Freelance Hell. The forum was part of the programme aimed specifically at young people aspiring to work in television. It was billed rather chillingly in the following terms:

It will, therefore, come as no surprise to discover that there are a number of important issues and ethical concerns which are of particular concern to the freelance, although to some degree they affect the industry as a whole. Many of them are to do with your own well-being, happiness and success in your chosen field, others are more focused on those around you; the subjects of your programmes, your employers and your audiences. I have already pointed out the very high degree of motivation that is needed by anyone seeking to enter the audio-visual industry in any capacity, and that, in most cases, this motivation together with basic skills and a willingness to learn will (eventually) pay off. I have talked to many freelances in the course of preparing this book and it was arresting to observe that not one of those I spoke to said that they wanted to be a freelance! Without exception, all of them would have preferred a staff job. I can make no claims whatever for the representative accuracy of my sample, but my experience does seem to have at least some significance. A tracking survey of the industry carried out by the British Film Institute (BFI) and published in 1999 discovered that, of its sample

It may well be that some of the issues we are about to explore are at the root of some of the reservations about life as a freelance. I should quickly point out that most of those with whom I have spoken considered themselves very happy and, in many ways, privileged to do the work they were doing – it’s just that they would prefer to be doing it in a permanent job. Employment data suggest however that the so-called casualisation of the industry is a trend that is likely to continue in the foreseeable future.