BBC chief in multi-cultural drive

BBC Comedy Goodness, Gracious Me is highly popular

The BBC's new director-general is pledging to recruit more people from ethnic minorities and make the corporation more open to talent from all communities.

Greg Dyke warned that some young people already see the BBC as irrelevant, since it fails to adequately reflect the UK's cultural diversity.

I want a BBC where diversity is seen as an asset, not an issue or a problem

Greg Dyke

He cited the police and Marks & Spencer as examples of organisations who hit trouble because they were slow to react to modern Britain.

Mr Dyke, who took over the top job at the corporation in January, was giving a keynote speech to the Race in the Media Awards at London's Savoy Hotel.

He promised to raise the number of ethnic-minority staff from 8% to 10% by 2003, and at least double the number of BBC managers from the ethnic minorities - at present, only 2%.

Mr Dyke, who once worked as a race relations officer, said his drive would include giving managers recruitment performance targets. And he stressed the need for a pro-active anti-discrimination employment policy.

Different portrayals

"I want a BBC where diversity is seen as an asset, not an issue or a problem," he said.

Greg Dyke: pledging to recruit more ethnic minorities

And he said reflecting Britain's multi-cultural nature also applied to broadcasts.

"The great danger for any broadcaster is to let your audience get ahead of you in ideas and attitudes. And I believe that in the area of race there is real evidence that one important part of our audience, the young, are already well ahead of us," he said.

Too often, ethnic minorities were portrayed as unemployed or bugged by crime, bad housing, poor schooling, poverty, he said.

"We need a new model that reflects today's world - that sees the valued contribution of all peoples to shaping today's Britain," he said.