Barriers to Diversity in Film – A Research Review – Aug 07

was not a barrier for their careers. However, over half saw the lack of
permanent positions as a barrier, more than their white peers (IES
2004 with Pact and the UK Film Council).
3.4.3 Marginalisation of companies
One report argues that within television in the 1990s there was a
decline in the numbers of black people employed in influential
positions; a decline in the numbers of programmes targeting black
viewers and a decline in the numbers of black-owned production
companies commissioned by broadcasters (Watson 2001). The author
argues there has been a lack of government support that benefits
other vulnerable companies, for example, those based in the regions.
Although the government has funded schemes to increase the support
for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), these companies rarely
consider cultural diversity as part of their remit. Instead there is a
‘special’ approach of creating separate committees and initiatives,
which tends to marginalise black companies (Watson op.cit.).
Monitoring in this area does not exist. Despite the launch of the
Cultural Diversity Network, it is BECTU and PACT that have made
recommendations for change such as contract compliance, ethnic
minority supplier targets, ring-fenced resources for multi-cultural
programming and publicly available monitoring (Watson 2001).
Comparing self-reported performance measures against similar small
companies, MEL companies are more pessimistic about their success;
they achieved smaller financial rewards and had greater uncertainty
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