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Panorama (TV series)



Main article: Sex Crimes and the Vatican (film)

On October 1, 2006 Panorama did an episode on Crimen Sollicitationis, a secret document which sets out a procedure for dealing with child sex abuse scandals within the Catholic Church. It was enforced for 20 years by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became the Pope. It instructs bishops on how to deal with allegations of child abuse against priests and has been seen by few outsiders. Critics say the document has been used to evade prosecution for sex crimes.

Crimen Sollicitationis was written in 1962 in Latin and given to Catholic bishops worldwide who are ordered to keep it locked away in the church safe. It instructs them how to deal with priests who solicit sex from the confessional. It also deals with "any obscene external act ... with youths of either sex." It imposes an oath of secrecy on the child victim, the priest dealing with the allegation and any witnesses. Breaking that oath means excommunication from the Catholic Church.

Panorama found seven priests with child abuse allegations made against them living in and around the Vatican City. One of the priests, Father Joseph Henn, has been indicted on 13 molestation charges brought by a grand jury in the United States. Henn is fighting extradition orders from inside the headquarters of his religious order in the Vatican. The Vatican has not compelled him to return to America to face the charges against him. After filming, Father Henn lost his fight against extradition but fled the Vatican and is believed to be hiding in Italy while there is an international warrant for his arrest.

Sex Crimes and the Vatican was filmed by Colm O'Gorman, who was raped by a Catholic priest in the diocese of Ferns in County Wexford in Ireland when he was 14 years old. Father Seán Fortune was charged with 66 counts of sexual, indecent assault and another serious sexual offence relating to eight boys but he committed suicide on the eve of his trial. Colm started an investigation with the BBC in March 2002 which led to the resignation of Dr Brendan Comiskey, the bishop leading the Ferns Diocese. Colm then pushed for a government inquiry which led to the Ferns Report.

In some countries this means that the Crimen Sollicitationis is the only policy followed. The Vatican has refused repeated requests from Panorama to respond to any of the cases shown in the film.[10]

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Scheduling

The scheduling of Panorama has, since the 1980s, often been a subject of media debate and controversy, due to the duties of the BBC to provide both on the one hand entertaining programming that appeals to a mass audience, and on the other serious journalism that might have a narrower audience. In February 1985, with the programme being watched by an average audience of just 3.5 million viewers, Controller of BBC One Michael Grade moved the programme from its traditional prime time 8.10pm slot on Monday evenings back to 9.30pm, following the Nine O'Clock News.[11] Despite many protests about this move in the media,[11] Panorama remained in this slot until 1997, although two of Grade's successors, Alan Yentob and Michael Jackson, were known to be unhappy about running 70 continuous minutes of news from 9pm.[11] In May 1997 the Acting Controller of BBC One, Mark Thompson, did move Panorama back half an hour to 10pm, to make way for the sitcom Birds of a Feather, which opened the BBC to criticism that it was sidelining serious content in favour of lighter programming.[11]

In 2000, the programme was moved again, with the 10pm timeslot no longer available due to the moving of the BBC News from 9pm to the later slot. Panorama was moved to Sunday nights, following the news, usually shown at around 10.15pm — labelled by some critics as a "graveyard slot".[12] The number of editions made per year was also cut back, which attracted press criticism for the BBC in general and its Director-General Greg Dyke in particular, as Dyke was the driving force behind the schedule changes.[13][14] The incoming Controller of BBC One, Lorraine Heggessey, defended the move, claiming that the programme's audience would have "dwindled" had it remained on Monday nights.[12]

January 2007 Heggessey's successor, Peter Fincham, moved Panorama back from Sunday nights to a prime time Monday evening slot at 8.30pm, although it was now shorter than it had previously been, running to just half an hour. This decision was at least partly in response to a demand from the Board of Governors of the BBC for the channel to show more current affairs programming in prime time.[15]

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References

  1. ^ Panorama returns to peak time on BBC ONE. BBC Press Office (2006-07-18). Retrieved on 2008-06-02.
  2. ^ BBC Radio 2, Steve Wright in the Afternoon 15th January 2006, Jeremy Vine interview
  3. ^ Daily Mail, UK, October 6, 2007
  4. ^ The secrets of seroxat. BBC News Online (2002). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  5. ^ Seroxat: Emails from the edge. BBC News Online (2003). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  6. ^ Taken on trust. BBC News Online (2004-09-21). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  7. ^ Secrets of the drug trials. BBC News Online (2007-01-29). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  8. ^ Want to see some of the documents that Glaxo don’t want you to see?. Seroxat Secrets (2007-01-29). Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
  9. ^ "Agents claim manager was bribed", BBC News, 2006-09-19. Retrieved on 2006-09-19. 
  10. ^ Sex crimes and the Vatican: Transcript. BBC Panorama.
  11. ^ a b c d Culf, Andrew. "Birds of a Feather puts Panorama to flight as Sharon and Tracey displace BBC flagship", The Guardian, 1997-05-08. Retrieved on 2007-01-24. 
  12. ^ a b Wells, Matt. "1 m viewers lost as BBC shifts Panorama to Sunday 'graveyard' slot", The Guardian, 2000-10-17. Retrieved on 2007-01-20. 
  13. ^ Elstein, David. "A shameful decision" (Requires free registration), The Guardian, 2000-05-22. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. 
  14. ^ Aaronovitch, David. "You cannot be serious!", The Independent, 2000-05-16. Retrieved on 2007-01-21. 
  15. ^ Sherwin, Adam. "Panorama to take on ITV soap", The Times, 2006-01-19. Retrieved on 2007-01-19. 

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External links

BBC Portal
"Scientology and Me"

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Bibliography

  • Richard Lindley (2002), Panorama: Fifty Years of Pride and Paranoia, Politicos, ISBN 1-902301-80-3



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