BBC boss was told 'everyone in this building knows who accused presenter is'
BBC boss Tim Davie was told “everyone in this building knows who the accused presenter is” as he defended the broadcaster’s response to the scandal.
The director general was on Radio 4 on Tuesday, and discussed the “very difficult and complex” situation after it emerged a BBC presenter allegedly paid £35,000 to a young person for explicit pictures.
The scandal erupted last week, when an interview was published with the young person's mother, who claimed the presenter had sent the young person thousands of pounds in exchange for the photos over three years, starting when they were 17.
However, a lawyer for the young person has refuted the allegations, and called the story “rubbish”.
The BBC came under fire when it emerged the parents had lodged a complaint with the broadcaster in May, but said they had heard nothing back, so went to the newspaper to share their concerns.
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On Tuesday, Tim Davie was quizzed by Radio 4’s Sarah Montague on the ongoing situation, as she stated that 'everyone in the building knew who the presenter was', despite him not being named in the media.
Tim was interviewed on BBC Radio 4 on Tuesday morning (BBC)“Except we're in a very strange situation, aren't we? In that he's not been named but everyone in this building knows who it is and there are an awful lot of people who you also have a duty of care to,” she told the BBC boss.
“Male presenters on air who are having to go on air to say it's not them. It's not a sustainable situation is it?“ Sarah asked.
The BBC boss insisted they were dealing with the allegations “calmly and judiciously”, as he said they were navigating through “quite difficult circumstances”.
“I think I would state that it is absolutely not the right thing to be doing to speculate to, you know... some of the malicious stuff online, and I would condemn, of course I would, but I as Director General have to make those calls fairly, and in a balanced manner as we go through the process,” he explained.
He admitted the allegations were “damaging” to the BBC, and maintained the broadcaster’s news team would be reporting on the scandal “independently, without fear or favour”.
“Organisationally, we're doing the right thing... We'll be as transparent as we can,” Tim added.
It comes as the BBC released a new statement today as the corporation faced a press conference originally intended to focus on presenters' salaries – however, the broadcaster faced questions on the scandal.
It read: "Yesterday, 10 July, the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team had a meeting with the Metropolitan Police in relation to information provided to the BBC by The Sun newspaper on Thursday 6 July.
"As a result of this meeting, the BBC has been asked to pause its investigations into the allegations while the Police scope future work.
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"We know that questions have been asked about how the complaint was initially managed, so today we have published an update that sets out key dates and some additional information that we are currently able to share.
"The BBC has processes and protocols for receiving information and managing complaints when they are first made. We always take these matters extremely seriously and seek to manage them with the appropriate duty of care.
"The events of recent days have shown how complex and challenging these kinds of cases can be and how vital it is that they are handled with the utmost diligence and care. There will, of course, be lessons to be learned following this exercise.
"Although the current issues has not yet been fully resolved, the Director-General has asked Leigh Tavaziva, the BBC’s Group Chief Operating Officer, to assess whether our protocols and procedures are appropriate in light of this case, and report to the BBC Board on this in due course."Following the meeting, the Met Police released a statement and confirmed they were undertaking further enquiries, but added there was no investigation under way."
Yesterday, the Metropolitan Police released a statement following a meeting with the BBC.
A Met Police statement said: "Detectives from the Met's specialist crime command met with representatives from the BBC on the morning of Monday, 10 July. The meeting took place virtually.
"They are assessing the information discussed at the meeting and further enquiries are taking place to establish whether there is evidence of a criminal offence being committed. There is no investigation at this time."
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