The BBC’s acting director-general pledged yesterday to “get a grip” of the crisis at the broadcaster as two top executives stood aside over a scandal surrounding its reporting of child sex abuse.
Former PepsiCo executive Tim Davie said his job was to restore leadership following the dramatic resignation of his predecessor George Entwistle over a BBC report wrongly accusing a senior political figure of abusing children.
The BBC said earlier that director of news Helen Boaden and her deputy Stephen Mitchell were standing aside over a linked scandal surrounding a decision to drop a BBC probe into claims that late star Jimmy Savile was a paedophile.
The publicly funded broadcaster has also found itself embroiled in a row over the £450,000 (€565,000) payoff for Entwistle, the equivalent of a year’s salary, which Prime Minister David Cameron said was “hard to justify”.
The chairman of the BBC Trust, Chris Patten, who is himself facing calls from some quarters to quit over the crisis, defended the package.
Entwistle’s departure on Saturday has left the BBC in chaos as it battles to restore its journalistic reputation following the botched child abuse report and allegations that it covered up allegations against Savile.
“We’ve had an honourable man leave the BBC. My job now is to get a grip of the situation and take action,” Davie told BBC News.
But in a sign of the pressure he is under, Davie walked out of a bad-tempered interview with the rival Sky News television, saying he had no more time to talk because he had a job to do.
In an e-mail to staff, Davie said he took over as acting director-general “determined to give the BBC the clarity and leadership it deserves” until a permanent replacement is found. He confirmed that Boaden and Mitchell would be temporarily standing down as he sought to implement a “single management to deal with all News output, Savile-related or otherwise”.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller told parliament on Monday the BBC was facing the “most serious of crises” and said it must act to restore public confidence.
At the heart of the crisis facing the BBC is the role of staff and managers at its flagship current affairs programme Newsnight.
Newsnight broadcast a report on November 2 falsely implicating former Conservative party treasurer Alistair McAlpine in abuse at a children’s home in Wales in the 1970s, which it was then forced to retract.
The programme was already facing accusations that it axed a report into claims of sex abuse against Savile last year because it would have embarrassed the corporation as it prepared to run a tribute to the presenter. Police have since said that Savile, who died in October 2011 aged 84, may have abused up to 300 children over four decades.
Newsnight editor Peter Rippon stood aside last month over the axed Savile report. The BBC insisted that they had not been sacked and were expected to return to their jobs after the inquiry by former Sky News boss Nick Pollard was published into why the Savile investigation never made it on the air. But the corporation warned heads were likely to roll over the Newsnight report.
“Consideration is now being given to the extent to which individuals should be asked to account further for their actions and if appropriate, disciplinary action will be taken,” the BBC said.