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BBC Trust to report on Sachs row BBC Trust to report on Sachs row
(about 1 hour later)
More details are expected later about how crude phone calls made by the presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand came to be aired on BBC Radio 2. The findings of the BBC's inquiry into the Russell Brand affair will be revealed by the BBC Trust later.
The BBC Trust, which acts on behalf of licence-payers, will publish a BBC management report into the incident, as well as its own conclusions. Brand quit his Radio 2 show last month after he and Jonathan Ross made crude phone calls to actor Andrew Sachs in a pre-recorded show which was then aired.
Brand resigned after the calls to actor Andrew Sachs prompted outrage. Ross was suspended for three months without pay. Station boss Lesley Douglas also left, along with one of her executives. Ross was suspended for 12 weeks.
Radio 2's controller and head of compliance also resigned over the row. The Prime Minister condemned the broadcast, while media coverage of it prompted more than 37,000 complaints.
The controversy centred on messages left by the two presenters on the Fawlty Towers actor's answer phone. Director general Mark Thompson reported back to BBC Trust chairman Michael Lyons on Thursday.
They claimed that Brand had slept with the 78-year-old's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie. The trust, which acts as the corporation's watchdog, will reveal the contents of that report as well as its own findings on the incident.
The stunt prompted 42,000 complaints to the media regulator Ofcom, which is also carrying out an investigation into what happened. Crude comments
'Appropriate sanction' Brand's show, recorded on 16 October, featured the comic and special guest Ross attempting to phone Sachs but getting his voicemail.
The BBC's media correspondent Torin Douglas said the management report was expected to shed more light on exactly how the material came to be aired. The pair continued to dial his number, however, and left a series of crude messages about his granddaughter, dancer Georgina Baillie.
He said it was not yet clear whether it came down to a failure of the editorial systems, or bad judgment by those in charge, or both. The BBC apologised to Andrew Sachs for the calls made to his answerphoneDuring the calls to the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor, Ross swore and said Brand had slept with Baillie, 23.
The Trust has no power to sack BBC employees, but it could put pressure on director general Mark Thompson to take further action. The show was approved for transmission two days later, after which two complaints were received, relating to Ross's swearing.
However, the Trust issued a statement on Tuesday saying Ross's suspension was an "appropriate sanction". But protests soared after the Mail on Sunday publicised the broadcast a week later.
Radio 2 has also said that the 47-year-old presenter is due to return to work on 24 January. Brand and Ross were both suspended three days after the first newspaper reports, but Brand later resigned, saying he took "complete responsibility" for the incident.
Mr Thompson described the Sachs incident as a "gross lapse of taste". The BBC broadcast two apologies, while Radio 2's head of specialist music and compliance, David Barber, also quit.
It led to the resignations of Radio 2's controller Lesley Douglas, and David Barber, head of specialist music and compliance. The report is likely to focus on who approved the show for broadcast, and on BBC management's response to the affair.
On Friday, the Trust will also issue its provisional conclusions on plans to spend millions of pounds of licence-fee money on video news reports for local BBC websites. Earlier this week BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons denied the corporation had been slow in its response to the incident, but admitted to MPs that lessons could be learned.
But Mr Thompson revealed that he was unaware of the furore for more than 24 hours after the storm broke as he was out of the country, and out of telephone contact.