ABSTRACT
Journalism ethics were closely linked with the press in the early part of the twentieth century for the obvious reason that broadcasting did not start in earnest until the 1920s. Even then the tight control exercised over the BBC meant that there were not the kind of concerns about broadcast ethics that grew about the press. Radio, like many technologies, was invented and developed by a number of people, but we can certainly identify radio being used commercially by 1900. At this stage, in the UK at least, the military was determined to keep it under its control as a method of strategic and tactical communication. This was not heavily resisted as the idea of using radio as a broadcast system, rather than as a two-way communication device, meant there was not much consideration of a public broadcast system; few (although not all) were prescient enough to see how the world would be swamped by broadcast entertainment in the future. After the Great War, the military were obliged to release their control a little and a ground-breaking transmission by the famous opera singer Dame Nellie Melba on 15 June 1920 (Crissell 1997: 10), heard across Europe and in America, showed what could be achieved; the British Broadcasting Company was set up in 1922 by the main manufacturers of radio sets, determined to increase their market by producing programmes the public might enjoy and would need to buy a radio set to hear. The new company was licensed by the Postmaster-General under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1904 with funding coming from the licence fee and royalties from the sales of wireless sets. In 1927 the BBC was converted to a corporation, taking up the recommendations of the Crawford committee, which now saw clearly how important a public radio broadcast system could be. The new corporation was set up by the government, but was quasi autonomous with a board of governors and funding coming from the licence fee, a basic structure that has remained unchanged until 2007. The public took to radio and by 1939 there were 9 million radio licences and up to five times as many receivers. Because broadcasting was set up by government, controlled by a Royal Charter with governors appointed by the government of the day, the BBC was very much an establishment instrument, a criticism it has faced consistently throughout its history. The one early disappointment in radio was a lack of news. Pressure by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Assocation, owners of national newspapers, meant that the government forbade the corporation to carry news before 7 p.m. and even then the bulletin had to be provided by Reuters written with newspaper readers in mind (Crissell 1997: 15). For this reason, ethics in broadcasting was less of a problem than for newspapers, and although the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) decided at its annual conference in 1936 to introduce a code of conduct, there were very few, if any, members working in broadcast at this time. The BBC had a staff association and did not recognise other unions. In any case, with news being produced outside the BBC, there were few staff members eligible. This started to change with the introduction of radio news in 1938, and in 1942 there was the formation of the BBC chapel in Bush House – the European Service Chapel, joined shortly after by the Overseas Service Chapel. These became the London Radio Branch on their later merger. Although the Broadcast Report 1949 (1950) recommended that the BBC recognise appropriate unions, the NUJ wasn’t finally recognised until 1 January 1955 (Bundock 1957: 192). With the end of the Second World War, during which the BBC’s news service had guaranteed it a place of trust with listeners, the BBC launched new services, offering its listeners more variety with the Light Programme, the Home Service and the Third Programme. The BBC also reintroduced its TV service, which it had started in 1936, but had suspended for the duration of the war. The Selsdon Committee in 1934 had recommended that the BBC should run a trial TV service. This should be provided on a transmission system using a minimum of 240 lines and in the event a 405-line service, using the EMI electronic system, soon proved itself to be the best. However, the system was closed in September 1939 because of the war. It was relaunched by the BBC in 1946
and was enthusiastically received by the public. The coronation in 1953 was a major event with many buying their first television set and inviting their neighbours to join them to watch the spectacle. This was the first of several major public events which have been pivotal in introducing major changes in technology, the latest being the introduction of high-definition TV for the World Cup in 2006 and 3D TV for the World Cup 2010.
