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.

“They had found clear and compelling evidence that Jimmy Savile was a paedophile,” he added.

When ITV broadcast a similar exposé in October about Savile, who died in 2011 aged 84, the BBC came under fire for both harbouring an alleged serial sex abuser for decades and for killing its own story about him.

The scandal quickly metastasised, prompting the resignation of the institution’s new director-general, George Entwistle, and raised questions about its former leader, Mark Thompson, who has since become CEO at The New York Times.

The BBC’s decision to cancel its initial probe was particularly embarrassing, as it preceded a tribute show honouring Savile’s career.

A host of misleading and contradictory statements about the investigation in the weeks that followed only deepened suspicion that senior executives had tried to bury the story to protect the corporation’s reputation.

Pollard cleared the executives of that — the most serious — charge, saying that although the decision to scrap the programme “was clearly flawed ... I believe it was taken in good faith”.

Pollard had a harsh verdict on the BBC’s behaviour in the aftermath of the scandal, saying it took more than a month to get its story straight in the midst of what he called “a complete breakdown of communication”.

He said: “There was a critical lack of leadership and coordination,” describing an atmosphere of recrimination, mistrust, and mismanagement. He even quoted James Hardy, the then-BBC communications chief, as promising to “drip poison” about one of the Newsnight reporters he suspected of leaking stories to the press.

The review — which cost the BBC about £2m (€2.45m) — had harsh words for several executives. One of those, deputy director of news Steve Mitchell, announced his resignation as the report was made public. The BBC said other staff members still faced disciplinary action or were being moved to new jobs.

Pollard’s report does not appear to challenge Thompson’s account of his role in the scandal.

Chris Patten, head of the BBC Trust, said after the review was published that he has “no reason at all for disbelieving” the former director general.

Meanwhile, eight suspects so far have been questioned in the Savile inquiry, the latest yesterday when police said a man in his 70s had been detained in connection with the investigation.

Police say Savile is a suspect in 199 crimes recorded so far, including dozens of cases of rape.