The BBC is to suspend all telephone, interactive and online competitions after an internal investigation revealed a fresh batch of programmes featuring fake phone-ins.
The director general of the BBC, Mark Thompson, disclosed serious editorial breaches in six shows yesterday, including Comic Relief and Children in Need, as he announced an action plan promising a "zero tolerance" approach to any future lapses in editorial judgment.
But while accepting that the buck stopped with him, Mr Thompson cited the BBC Trust's backing for his action plan and insisted he would not resign.
The BBC Trust issued a statement expressing deep disappointment at what it described as "evidence of insufficient understanding among certain staff of the standards of accuracy and honesty expected".
The latest humiliation for the BBC follows last week's £50,000 fine by the industry regulator after Blue Peter faked the winner of a phone-in contest and the row surrounding the release of misleading footage from a forthcoming documentary wrongly suggesting that Queen Elizabeth had stormed out of a photo-shoot.
Yesterday's statement confirmed that in six shows over the past two years production staff passed themselves off as viewers or listeners, or invented competition winners.
Mr Thompson said it was right for the BBC to be open with the public where it had fallen short.
Announcing that BBC programmes and content staff will be required to attend a new mandatory training programme "focusing on the issue of honesty with audiences", Mr Thompson insisted "deception" was "never the answer" even if a programme risked failing on-air.
"Nothing matters more than trust and fair dealing with our audiences," he said: "The vast majority of the 400,000 hours of BBC output each year on television, radio and online is accurate, fair and complies with our stringent editorial policies.
"However, a number of programmes have failed to meet these high standards. This is totally unacceptable. It is right that we are open with the public when we have fallen short and that we demonstrate we take this very seriously indeed."
An RTÉ spokesman said its internal auditor had carried out a review of all its programmes that used premium-rated phone lines.
"They came back and gave us a clean bill of health. At the moment the BBC decision has no particular relevance to RTÉ," he said. However, the spokesman said that RTÉ would be publishing a new set of guidelines on its website which include details of all the charges for such phone lines.