BBC suspends phone-in contests

LONDON, July 18 (UPI) -- The BBC suspended phone-in competitions Wednesday after the British network's probe revealed programs, including fundraising events, faked winners.

On each occasion, the "winning caller" was a member of the production team posing as a viewer, The Daily Mail reported Wednesday. Some of the shows featuring the sham winners included charitable fundraisers "Children In Need," "Comic Relief" and "Sports Relief."

The new cases follow the revelation that "Blue Peter" persuaded a child to pose as a winner, which resulted in a $102,000 fine by the Office of Communications, the media watchdog.

"The behavior of a small number of production staff who have passed themselves off as viewers and listeners must stop," BBC Director General Mark Thompson said. "We must now swiftly put our house in order."

The revelations resulted from a BBC-wide search of some 1 million hours of broadcast footage since January 2005. Thompson ordered the review after a television trailer wrongly implied that Queen Elizabeth II stormed out of a photo shoot with American photographer Annie Leibovitz.

Thompson said program and content staff would attend mandatory training "focusing on the issue of honesty with audiences."