By Simon Bond

       An independent production company commissioned by the BBC is about to make legal history by suing The Sun newspaper for planting an undercover reporter in a sex addiction documentary they made.
    The top-selling UK tabloid sent one of its reporters to pose as a barmaid and reveal details of her alleged sex addiction for an edition of the long-running religious series "Everyman."
      The Sun's expose of the program has now backfired following confirmation by the BBC last week that it is to support legal action by the documentary makers.
     The reporter had signed a contract with the producers containing an "honesty clause" asserting that her story was true. Now, in what is set to become a landmark case for the broadcast industry, the production company will test the validity of its contract. The "Everyman" segment, "Addicted to Love," was due to be broadcast last week but was pulled from BBC1's schedule at
the last minute after the Sun's revelation that its reporter, Andrea Busfield, had tricked producers into believing her sex-addiction story.
     In its defense, the saucy Murdoch-owned tab claims that it initiated the stunt to expose how the BBC had failed to follow "the most basic rules of journalism." The newspaper described the 50-minute documentary as a sham. The BBC has lashed back at what it calls "months of willful deception" by the reporter.
     The legal action follows a spate of "hoax" programs on UK television.
     Earlier this year commercial broadcaster Carlton was find a record $3.2 million by the industry's regulator for screening a documentary on Colombian drug-running in which the smugglers were later revealed to be frauds.
      The was followed by the fall from grace of the Jerry Springer inspired "Vanessa Show" following revelations that a number of its "real-life" guests were in fact actors hired from an entertainment agency.
      The "Venessa Show" has since been pulled from the schedule and the BBC introduced honesty clauses in to its contacts for factual documentaries as part of a "cleanup" campaign.
       In this latest hoax case, The Sun reporter told program researchers that she was a barmaid in an East London pub and signed a contract stating she
had not misled them over her identity.
       The BBC has issued a statement confirming that the program makers had made extensive checks on the reporter, who had responded to an advertisement in The Guardian newspaper for
contributors to a program about sex and love addiction. The program makers had checked her mail while filming at her flat to make sure it
corresponded with the name she had given and searched registers of performers to make sure she was not an actress.
     With a documentary of this type costing up to $120,000, The Sun could face a bill to recover all costs plus legal fees if they lose. Following only a few weeks after The Sun's editor David Yelland was forced into making a double apology for publishing near-topless pictures of the now Princess Sophie Rhys-Jones, reporters may soon be responding to another advertisement in The Guardian newspaper--this time for the soon to be
vacated editor's seat at the Sun.

-Simon Bond writes from outside London.