‘Enemy within’: BBC spied on staff nearly 150 times, investigation claims

The BBC “monitored” 148 staff email accounts in 2013 and 2014, leading one BBC insider to accuse the corporation of treating employees like “the enemy.”
Some 56 staff email accounts were monitored in 2014, up from 46 the previous year, according to a report by the Press Gazette.
Of the 56 snoops last year, 27 were conducted to investigate information leaks, 17 were related to fraud investigations and 12 were concerning disciplinary procedures.
The sharp increase in staff surveillance has been criticized by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and a BBC insider.
It is thought the increase in information leaks is related to the BBC’s Delivering Quality First plan, which has resulted in significant job cuts in the name of budget savings.
BBC News announced plans to cut 415 jobs last year, expecting to save £48 million by 2017 as a result.
Of the 148 snoops from 2013 to 2014, 46 email accounts were accessed in order to comply with Data Protection and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests, leaving 102 cases of monitoring for internal reasons.
This is a stark increase on previous figures, with the Mail Online reporting in December 2013 the BBC spied on staff emails 140 times between 2009 and 2013.

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