Former BBC reporter Robin Aitken asks whether we can still trust the BBC in the wake of recent scandals. From the Jimmy Saville sex abuse scandal, to the Newsnight report that wrongly implicated Lord Macalpine and the Dr David Kelly affair, the BBC has been shaken to its foundations by revelation after revelation. Aitken, who worked for the BBC for 25 years and is author of an earlier book, Can We Trust the BBC?, asks whether people can still trust a national institution that was once the embodiment of truth and moral excellence. He argues that recent shortcomings have their roots in longstanding lapses and shortcomings in the BBC’s doctrine of impartiality, and says that what he foresaw in his earlier book has come true.

Aitken worked at many levels in the BBC including on the Today programme. He raised with his bosses a number of times his concerns about what he said was a left-liberal bias at the corporation.

Supported by Ian and Carol Sellars.