I received another email regarding the important initiate to maintain access to the BBC archives - text follows below: We are writing with another of our occasional updates on the campaign against policy changes at the Written Archives Centre, to which you are signed up. If you no longer wish to receive these emails then please click on the unsubscribe button at the end of this message. Release of files As previewed in our last email, the BBC made available around 50,000 files in an announcement on 23 December. It was their intention to use this to gain some positive coverage, and we have reasonable grounds to believe that its delayed appearance was deliberately timed to kill off a critical story that was due to appear that evening in the Daily Telegraph. In the event we were able to work with the journalist to ensure the story was still published and remained strong. It was widely shared and can be viewed here (gift link) Further details of the files release can be found on this page of the BBC website. It is much as expected - some focused collections pertaining to individuals, services and programmes, but predominantly made up of 50,000 or so contributor files about people who made appearances on radio and television up til 1962. Future releases are expected quarterly but may not be as substantial. We of course welcome this release, but it is important to note three things.
Last week, the campaign received an email from management stating that no list of the newly released files will be published online. It is deeply peculiar to make such a big announcement to the press and then do almost nothing in the real world to aid the intended users. Indeed, one might argue that the release was never driven by user requests in the first place so the views of researchers are irrelevant to the BBC. Certainly, there has been no effort to reach out to the research community or regular WAC users in the five weeks since the announcement. The lack of an online catalogue As we have said to the BBC directly, there is now a clear pattern of behaviour that strongly indicates the policy changes at WAC have nothing to do with saving money. They were originally framed as such when we first met in April 2025. We believe that the BBC is instead focused on risk-aversion and will not do anything to actively assist researchers or drive up access. In truth we believe this strategy will, over time, encourage a decline in reading room use and create justification for further cuts. FOI material released to the campaign shows that the decision to pull the planned online catalogue in December 2022, just prior to its unveiling, was motivated by concerns about file names being out in the open - accessible to any journalist. An internal report dating from 2023 gave one of the other key risks as being a worry that the presence of an online catalogue would drive up demand for the services of WAC. At the most recent user group meeting (November 2025) the Lead Curator stated that WAC staff are being instructed to avoid disclosing on email the existence of files which have not and under current policy will not be vetted ‘on request’. As was strongly argued during the meeting, this deliberate absence is not only extremely unhelpful but also reputationally harmful to researchers who in their work must show diligence. The BBC representatives at the meeting said that they would go away and consider these points, but we are yet to receive any indication that this policy will change. We see the motivation for blocking this information as consistent: to drive down the use of the service by the very people who visit WAC. At the end of the November meeting, the representatives of the BBC were extremely reluctant to acknowledge that users have had recent success with FOI requests as a path to having files vetted - “because it creates work”. Tying this all together, we have established three key issues facing researchers:
If you are intending to do some research at WAC, please let us know and we will try to advise you on how best to advance your work. Next User Group This is scheduled for mid-March. Please get in touch if you have any questions or concerns you wish to have raised. Charter Renewal Finally, we would like to make you aware that we are preparing a detailed campaign submission to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, in response to the public consultation on the future of the BBC. When this consultation closes on 10 March the responses will be collected and, it is said, help contribute to decision making around the renewed BBC Charter, which is expected to come into effect on 1 January 2028. We encourage you to make your own contribution here. It is not obligatory to answer every question in the online form, only those which are of relevance to you. There are also post and email alternatives. In the next email we will update you on the details of our submission. Thanks for your continued support Ian Greaves, Dr Kate Murphy and Professor John Wyver Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy History in Organizations, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe.
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Wednesday, 18 February 2026
BBC WAC Campaign Update
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