Fears over decision to appoint new S4C CEO

Martin Shipton

Serious concerns have been expressed about a decision to press ahead with the appointment of a permanent S4C chief executive before a new Chair is in post.

The Welsh language broadcaster last year experienced the biggest crisis since it was set up in 1982 following widespread allegations of bullying against chief executive Sian Doyle.

S4C’s board commissioned an investigation by Cardiff law firm Capital Law into the accusations that culminated in a report which described multiple incidents involving Ms Doyle.

Many of the participants described situations where they had seen Sian Doyle behave abusively whilst discussing S4C colleagues and their work. This was described in various ways, but participants referred to her targeting specific colleagues in public and her use of swearwords and derogatory language whilst discussing them. This led to an unpleasant feeling and of mistrust among participants.

Disparaging

The report noted:“There are numerous reports of the Chief Executive being rude or disparaging about colleagues in internal meetings or in public. Examples include:

* Disparaging comments about S4C programmes and their presenters.In one example, in relation to a specific programme, the Chief Executive was reported as saying: “who the fuck are [redacted – presenters]? Who is watching this rubbish?”

* “Sian Doyle just started talking about [a former staff member] who no longer works at S4C. She was just wild and then said:“he has to go. I’m not going to have anyone like that working here”. That is a paraphrase of her words. She was just telling a room full: “that’s it. He has to go. I’m going to get rid of him.”

* In one conversation about a colleague Sian Doyle was reported as saying: ‘She’s fucking gone, she shows me no respect. I’ll get rid of her like that.’

“Participants reported that Sian Doyle’s leadership style was: ‘dictatorial creating a culture of fear’. Many of the participants described the negative impact of this on them and their work, with many being reluctant to challenge the chief executive and afraid to state their own ideas or views to her. We were told that this caused many S4C staff to feel generally scared in the workplace.

“An example of Sian Doyle’s leadership style was her alleged regular use of the phrase: ‘Shoot one and a thousand tremble’. This was raised by many participants and witnessed first-hand by three.

“There are many reports of people considering that they had to do what the chief executive said, whether they agreed or not, with her saying:’Are you with me or not, are you with me or not?’ and: ‘it’s me or the chair, you have to choose who you are loyal to, me or the chairman’.”

Over a period of months, while Capital Law was interviewing numerous current and former employees of the broadcaster, the relationship between Ms Doyle and S4C’s then Chair Rhodri Williams broke down completely.

Gross misconduct

After the law firm delivered its report, Ms Doyle was dismissed for gross misconduct by the board in November 2023.

Subsequently, after public hearings when Mr Williams was questioned by MPs and MSs, the House of Commons’ Welsh Affairs Committee and the Senedd’s Culture Committee both wrote to the UK Government’s then Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Lucy Frazer, calling on her not to re-appoint him for a second four-year term as Chair. He then wrote himself to Ms Frazer, saying he did not wish to be considered for re-appointment.

In February 2024 S4C announced the appointment of Sioned Wiliam as interim chief executive and published an action plan aimed at restoring confidence in the broadcaster. Well known in the industry as a former BBC Radio 4 comedy commissioner and former head of comedy at ITV, Ms Wiliam was previously a programme producer at Talkback and Hat Trick.

Action plan

Ms Wiliam’s main focus has been leading on the action plan, which sets out a programme of work to fully address the issues S4C has faced since 2022 – when Ms Doyle arrived – the aim being to restore the trust of S4C staff and the creative sector by looking at the leadership, culture, HR policies and procedures, and governance of the organisation.

As part of the plan, external experts have been leading a review of the organisation’s values, there is an external review of the effectiveness of S4C governance, managers have been receiving training on leadership and change management, and internal communications have been strengthened.

But there are fears that progress could be jeopardised if the new chief executive and Chair do not get on.

After Mr Williams stepped down as Chair at the end of March 2024, he was replaced on a temporary basis by Guto Bebb, the former Conservative MP for Aberconwy. Mr Bebb does not wish to be appointed to a four-year term and the DCMS is therefore recruiting a new person for the role.

A broadcasting industry insider told NationCymru: “The story is that the present S4C board is going to go ahead and appoint a new CEO without waiting for the new Chair. As we know the process has been paused because of the election. Unfortunate, but such is life.

“What this would mean is that the same board, minus Rhodri Williams, that appointed Sian Doyle – and we know how that worked out – will appoint the new CEO.

“For me this has two drawbacks: 1. All the board, except [former Tory Assembly Member] Suzy Davies, come to the end of their tenure next March, so they have no long term interest in the appointment. 2 We know how important the relationship is between the Chair and the CEO. If they appoint before the new Chair is appointed it makes that relationship a lottery. To my mind they should be pressing the DCMS to speed up the appointment process for a new Chair.”

The source added: “The interim chief executive, about whom I’ve heard good things, isn’t interested in the job on a full-time/ long-term basis, which is a shame.”

A spokesperson for S4C said: “The S4C board is working to further the process of appointing a permanent chief executive as soon as possible and has kept the DCMS informed. This will allow the company to move forward confidently.“