Lisa Nandy says there is a "culture of silence" in the TV industry and a "power imbalance" between executives and those starting out in their careers. Her comments come after an ITV News investigation found more than 40 people claimed to have witnessed or experienced inappropriate behaviour from TV chef Gino D'Acampo. The culture secretary adds the government is backing CIISA, a new initiative for victims to report abuse and for investigations to take place. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00There's a culture of silence around abuses of power and position and that
00:06particularly in this industry where young people, often working-class young
00:11people, often women, often from minority ethnic backgrounds break into the
00:16industry there's a huge power imbalance between the TV executives and those
00:21young people trying to make a start in the industry and big superstars as well
00:26the big celebrities the people who are perceived to bring in the money and that
00:32power imbalance means that TV executives have to be vigilant they have to make
00:37sure that there's a culture where people can speak out without what is happening
00:42at the moment which is that people know that their careers will suffer or end as
00:46a consequence we've seen report after report after report into incidences like
00:52this in recent years and yet too little has been done and that has got to change
00:56I think the issue is that people who speak out have too little power they're
01:00often not believed their careers suffer as a consequence and the system relies
01:05on individuals to take those complaints forward knowing that they will suffer as
01:11a consequence that's one of the reasons why our government is backing a new
01:15initiative CISA which is a new council that has been set up by industry in
01:21order to ensure that whistleblowers can come forward the investigations can take
01:25place and that there are consequences for those people who not only do the
01:31wrong thing and abuse others but those who cover it up as well well it covers
01:35the TV industry it's an initiative that industry feels is best and victims feel
01:40is best served by industry being independent of government the BBC and
01:45others have signed up to observe the standards around that we are open-minded
01:50about that we're happy to follow the wishes of victims and allow that to
01:55continue as an independent entity but we have been absolutely clear that if the
02:00industry can't get its own house in order if this independent initiative
02:04doesn't work we are prepared to step in and take action ourselves