Report: Chaos, not cover-up, to blame for BBC scandal

A review has absolved senior BBC executives of trying to bury an explosive story about one of its best-known children’s television stars, saying management errors were to blame for the fact that a planned exposé on paedophilia claims against the late Jimmy Savile was cancelled.

Institutional chaos and confusion — but not a cover-up — were to blame for the disastrous decision to scupper the Newsnight programme, the review found.

“The Newsnight investigators got the story right,” Nick Pollard — the former head of Sky News who carried out the inquiry into the dropped Newsnight probe — said.