23 October 2012
Last updated at 11:04 GMT
George Entwistle faced questioning by MPs for about two hours
Director
general George Entwistle has defended the BBC's response to the Jimmy
Savile sex abuse scandal, but accepted it raised questions of trust.
He told the Commons culture committee that since the "very,
very grave" claims had emerged, "we have done much of what we should
have done".
A past "cultural problem" at the BBC had allowed abuse by the presenter.
He also said the BBC was investigating five to 10 "serious allegations" involving past and present employees.
"There is no question that what Jimmy Savile did and the way
the BBC behaved in the years - the culture and practices of the BBC
seems to allow Jimmy Savile to do what he did - will raise questions of
trust for us and reputation for us," he told the Commons culture, media
and sport select committee.
"This is a gravely serious matter and one cannot look back at
it with anything other than horror, frankly, that... his activities
went on as long as they did undetected."
Police have described Savile, who was also a DJ and died last
year aged 84, as a predatory sex offender, and believe he may have
abused many people, including young girls, over a 40-year period.
A criminal investigation is under way.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
What became clear to us after the
blog was published was that... on Newsnight there was a significant, it
seemed, difference of opinion between the people working on the
investigation and the editor”
George Entwistle
BBC director general
Mr Entwistle said: "I'm not sure
in the 60s and 70s... they [staff] would have felt there was anything
they could do" about sexual harassment.
Nowadays BBC staff "know where to go" over harassment complaints, he added.
But, on sexual discrimination within the corporation, Mr
Entwistle said: "I believe the culture has changed at the BBC but I am
not convinced that it has changed as much as it should have."
On Monday,
BBC Panorama reported on the abuse allegations and an earlier BBC Newsnight investigation into Savile that was dropped last December.
Mr Entwistle said that, after seeing the Panorama broadcast,
he believed the investigation by Newsnight into Savile should have been
allowed to continue.
"I came away from Panorama firmly of the view that that
investigation, even if in the judgement of the editor it wasn't ready
for transmission at the point he was looking at it, should have been
allowed to continue."
Newsnight editor Peter Rippon has stepped aside amid an
independent inquiry - led by former Sky head of news Nick Pollard - into
why the programme dropped its investigation.
Asked whether there was pressure from BBC management on
Newsnight to drop its Savile investigation, Mr Entwistle said he had not
asked Mr Rippon about any conversations on the investigation with more
senior staff.
The director general said it was a matter of "regret and
embarrassment" that Mr Rippon's original blog post about the dropping of
the report had been inaccurate.
But he told MPs that he believed, "to the best of the
evidence we have been able to assemble", the explanation now being
offered by the BBC for the dropping of the Newsnight report was
accurate.
Christmas schedule
"What became clear to us after the blog was published was that
what had happened on Newsnight, there was a significant, it seemed,
difference of opinion between the people working on the investigation
and the editor, Peter Rippon, who commissioned the investigation."
Earlier this month,
in a blog,
Mr Rippon explained the editorial reasons behind his decision to axe
the Newsnight report. He said it was "totally untrue" he had been
ordered to do it by bosses as part of a BBC cover-up.
On Monday
the BBC issued a correction to some specific elements of the blog,
calling it "inaccurate or incomplete in some respects", although it did
not suggest he had been put under pressure to drop the report.
Mr Entwistle said Mr Rippon had become convinced that
examining whether the police had failed to properly investigate Savile
was crucial to airing the Newsnight report, and "no external pressure"
was required to come to that conclusion, says Mr Entwistle.
Mr Rippon had made the decision to drop the Newsnight investigation "on his own account", said the director general.
Mr Entwistle said he had asked Mr Rippon to step aside
because of inaccuracies in his blog and to give him a chance to prepare
properly for the Pollard Review.
Continue reading the main story
Jimmy Savile was a man with a high profile public persona, built on decades of broadcasting and charitable work.
He was seen as a flamboyant eccentric but is now accused of years of sexual abuse.
Mr Entwistle went on to say that
the Panorama programme pointed to the BBC's health as a media
organisation, rather than being a "symptom of chaos", because it showed
the organisation's capacity to investigate itself.
He said no other news organisation in the world would do this.
Mr Entwistle was asked about a brief conversation with BBC
director of news Helen Boaden last December about the possibility of
Newsnight running a report about Savile, while Mr Entwistle, as then BBC
director of Vision, was planning a tribute piece to the presenter on
Boxing Day.
"The key message I took away was that it wasn't yet clear to Helen whether it was going to stand up or not," he said.
"I wouldn't have had any qualms about making any changes we needed to make to the Christmas schedule."
When asked if it had been a failure by him to ask further
questions about the nature of the report, he said he didn't want to show
"undue interest", adding: "I don't believe I did fail... the system as a
whole doesn't seem to have got this right."
As well as the Pollard review, former Court of Appeal judge
Dame Janet Smith will lead a review into the culture and practices of
the BBC during Savile's time at the corporation and will also examine if
the BBC's child protection and whistleblowing policies are fit for
purpose.
She has said she expects to start work on Monday.
The Panorama programme, Jimmy Savile - What the BBC Knew, can be seen again on the BBC iPlayer.
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