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BBC Editor Steps Aside in Abuse Scandal BBC Editor Steps Aside in Abuse Scandal
(about 3 hours later)
LONDON — In a dramatic widening of a scandal scarring the BBC’s reputation for probity and integrity, the corporation announced Monday that the editor of a flagship news program was “stepping aside” after giving an “inaccurate or incomplete” account of his reasons for abandoning an investigation into a high-profile television personality accused of sexual abuse possibly involving more than 200 teenage girls. LONDON — A scandal scarring the BBC’s reputation for probity and integrity widened on Monday when the corporation announced that the editor of a flagship news program was “stepping aside” after giving an “inaccurate or incomplete” account of his reasons for abandoning an investigation into Sir Jimmy Savile, a high-profile television personality accused of sexual abuse that may have involved more than 200 teenage girls.
The editor, Peter Rippon, head of the often hard-hitting “Newsnight” program, was the first and most senior BBC news executive to face public censure in the scandal. The BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster which is financed by compulsory license fees from viewers, said the move involving Mr. Rippon would remain in place while an inquiry is held into the affair. The announcement came only hours before a BBC investigative program, Panorama, planned to broadcast its own inquiry into his decision last December to drop an investigation into the behavior of Sir Jimmy Savile, a prominent disc jockey, TV host and showman known also for his philanthropy who died last year aged 84. The editor, Peter Rippon, head of the often hard-hitting “Newsnight” program, was the first and most senior BBC news executive to face public censure in the scandal. The BBC, Britain’s public broadcaster, which is financed by compulsory license fees from viewers, said he would remain absent from his post on the program while an inquiry is held. The announcement came only hours before a BBC investigative program, “Panorama,” planned to broadcast its own examination of Mr. Rippon’s decision last December to drop an investigation of the behavior of Mr. Savile, a prominent disc jockey, television host and showman known also for his philanthropy, who died last year aged 84.
With his hallmark long cigars and collar-length peroxide blonde hair, Mr. Savile was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was regarded by some as a national treasure until the scandal broke this month with accusations that he abused teenage girls in hospitals, children’s homes and on BBC premises. The police said Friday that more than 200 “potential victims” had come forward, more than triple the number of suspected cases just days earlier. Known for smoking long cigars and wearing his peroxide blond hair at collar length, Mr. Savile was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and was regarded by some as a national treasure, until the scandal broke this month with accusations that he abused teenage girls in hospitals and children’s homes and on BBC premises. The police said Friday that more than 200 “potential victims” had come forward, more than tripling the number of suspected cases.
In a statement on Monday, the BBC said that Mr. Rippon’s explanation for dropping the segment on purely editorial considerations was “inaccurate or incomplete in some respects.” In a statement on Monday, the BBC said that Mr. Rippon’s explanation that the “Newsnight” segment on Mr. Savile was dropped purely for editorial reasons was “inaccurate or incomplete in some respects.”
“The BBC regrets these errors,” the statement said, promising to work with an inquiry to be conducted by a former head of the rival Sky News. “The BBC regrets these errors,” the statement said.
“In addition, the BBC has announced that Peter Rippon is stepping aside with immediate effect from his post while the review by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, into the management of Newsnight’s investigation, is carried out,” the statement said. It did not explain whether Mr. Rippon had been ordered or had volunteered to step aside. “In addition, the BBC has announced that Peter Rippon is stepping aside with immediate effect from his post while the review by Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, into the management of Newsnight’s investigation is carried out,” the statement said. It did not explain whether Mr. Rippon had been ordered or had volunteered to step aside.
The correction to Mr. Rippon’s initial explanation in a blog posting relates to an assertion that there was no evidence that staff at the state-run Duncroft school for emotionally disturbed teenage girls could have known of accusations that Mr. Savile abused children. The school, located in an 18th century manor house near Staines in Surrey, has since been closed. Much of the scandal revolves around events at the Duncroft School for emotionally disturbed teenage girls. The school, located in an 18th-century manor house near Staines in Surrey, has since been closed.
“In fact some allegations were made (mostly in general terms) that some of the Duncroft staff knew or may have known about the abuse,” the BBC statement said. “Panorama” said in a statement that its broadcast on Monday would quote “Newsnight” journalists as saying that they had worked on the investigation of Mr. Savile for a month and that they were close to a proposed broadcast date when their editor told them to stop. “Yet just days earlier when they’d confirmed for the first time that the police had investigated allegations of child sex abuse by Savile back in 2007, Newsnight Editor Peter Rippon had responded enthusiastically by e-mail,” the statement said.
“The blog says that all the women spoken to by the program had contacted the police independently already and that Newsnight had no new evidence against any other person that would have helped the police. It appears that in some cases women had not spoken to the police and that the police were not aware of all the allegations,” the statement said. It also questioned an assertion that Mr. Savile’s behavior was not widely known at the BBC, saying there were allegations of “abusive conduct on BBC premises.” “They had already filmed an interview in mid-November 2011 with a key witness, Karin Ward, who alleged that she had been sexually abused by Jimmy Savile during her time at Duncroft,” the statement said, adding that “Karin Ward has agreed that ‘Panorama’ can broadcast clips from that interview for the first time.
In his blog, Mr. Rippon said: “We had no evidence that anyone from the Duncroft home could or should have known about the allegations. We had no evidence against the BBC.” “By the 29th November 2011, the journalists had prepared a script containing transcribed clips from Karin Ward which they sent to Peter Rippon. The script referred to another star behaving inappropriately with an underage girl in the BBC’s dressing rooms. It quoted three other unnamed former Duncroft pupils who said they, too, had been sexually abused by Savile. The script also included a report of sexual abuse of a teenager at Stoke Mandeville hospital.”
Explaining his decision, he wrote that the Newsnight inquiry “had not established any institutional failure and I judged it weakened the story from a Newsnight perspective. I took the decision not to publish. There were some of my team who disagreed strongly with my judgment, and others who agreed equally strongly.” The “Panorama” statement said the program would quote from e-mails and interviews with “Newsnight” reporters, including one, Liz MacKean, who was quoted as saying: “I was very unhappy the story didn’t run, because I felt we’d spoken to people who collectively deserved to be heard, and they weren’t heard, and I thought that was a failing. I felt very much that I’d let them down.”
“However, those who disagreed accepted my decision. There were no rows of any kind as has been reported,” he said Referring to Mr. Rippon’s attitude toward the story, Ms. McKean said: “All I can say is that it was an abrupt change in tone from, you know, one day, ‘Excellent, let’s prepare to get this thing on air’ to ‘Hold on.’ ”The BBC also issued a correction on Monday of Mr. Rippon’s initial explanation in a blog post, related to an assertion that there was no evidence that the staff at the Duncroft School could have known of accusations that Mr. Savile had abused children.
“Did we withhold evidence from the police? No,” Mr. Rippon continued. “We are confident that all the women we spoke to had contacted the police independently already. We also had no new evidence against any other person that would have helped the police. “ “In fact, some allegations were made (mostly in general terms) that some of the Duncroft staff knew or may have known about the abuse,” the BBC statement on Monday said.
“Did my bosses order me to do anything? No. I did discuss it with my bosses in News in the same way I do any contentious story we are working on. I was told in the strongest terms that I must be guided by editorial considerations only and that I must not let any wider considerations about the BBC affect my judgment.” “The blog says that all the women spoken to by the program had contacted the police independently already, and that Newsnight had no new evidence against any other person that would have helped the police. It appears that in some cases women had not spoken to the police and that the police were not aware of all the allegations.”
The accusations against Mr. Savile have stunned many Britons, shattering the public image of a television personality who for decades attracted a young audience through his role as host of two popular BBC programs, “Top of the Pops,” a music chart-countdown show, and “Jim’ll Fix It,” in which Mr. Savile promised to grant viewers’ wishes. The BBC statement also called into question an assertion that Mr. Savile’s behavior was not widely known at the BBC, saying there were allegations of “abusive conduct on BBC premises. Mr. Rippon had said in his blog post that “we had no evidence against the BBC.”
The accusations first came to light in a documentary broadcast this month on the rival commercial channel ITV. As a result, several inquiries have been launched both the BBC, Parliament and by the police. Explaining his decision to halt work on the report about Mr. Savile, Mr. Rippon wrote initially that the “Newsnight” inquiry “had not established any institutional failure, and I judged it weakened the story from a ‘Newsnight’ perspective.”
The circumstances surrounding Mr. Rippon’s decision exposed the broadcaster to attack both from politicians and from its own governing body. “I took the decision not to publish,” he wrote. “There were some of my team who disagreed strongly with my judgment, and others who agreed equally strongly.
Prime Minister David Cameron called the developments “concerning because the BBC has effectively changed its story about why it dropped the Newsnight program about Jimmy Savile. These are serious questions. They need to be answered.” “However, those who disagreed accepted my decision. There were no rows of any kind as has been reported.”
The BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, said it was “deeply concerning that there have been inaccuracies in the BBC’s own description of what happened in relation to the Newsnight investigation.” Mr. Rippon also wrote that his superiors did not “order me to do anything,” adding, “I did discuss it with my bosses in News in the same way I do any contentious story we are working on. I was told in the strongest terms that I must be guided by editorial considerations only, and that I must not let any wider considerations about the BBC affect my judgment.”
Newsnight canceled the segment at about the same time as other departments at the corporation broadcast three tributes to Mr. Savile. The accusations against Mr. Savile have stunned many Britons, shattering the public image of a television personality who for decades attracted a young audience through his role as host of two popular BBC programs — “Top of the Pops,” a music chart-countdown show, and “Jim’ll Fix It,” in which Mr. Savile promised to grant viewers’ wishes.
The director general of the BBC at the time the segment was canceled was Mark Thompson, the incoming president and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company. In a letter sent to members of Parliament on Friday, a BBC spokeswoman said neither Mr. Thompson nor George Entwistle, his successor as director general, was involved in the “Newsnight” decision. The accusations of sexual abuse first came to light in a documentary broadcast this month on a rival channel, ITV. As a result, several inquiries have been begun by the BBC, Parliament and the police.
The circumstances surrounding Mr. Rippon’s decision exposed the BBC to attack both from politicians and from its own governing body.
Prime Minister David Cameron called the developments “concerning, because the BBC has effectively changed its story about why it dropped the ‘Newsnight’ program about Jimmy Savile.”
“These are serious questions,” Mr. Cameron said. “They need to be answered.”
The BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body, said it was “deeply concerning that there have been inaccuracies in the BBC’s own description of what happened in relation to the ‘Newsnight’ investigation.”
“Newsnight” canceled the segment at about the same time that other departments at the corporation were broadcasting three tributes to Mr. Savile.
The director general of the BBC at the time the segment was canceled was Mark Thompson, who has recently become the president and chief executive of The New York Times Company. In a letter sent to members of Parliament on Friday, a BBC spokeswoman said that neither Mr. Thompson nor George Entwistle, his successor as director general of the broadcaster, was involved in the “Newsnight” decision.
On Oct. 13, Mr. Thompson said: “I was not notified or briefed about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation, nor was I involved in any way in the decision not to complete and air the investigation. I have no reason to doubt the public statement by the program’s editor, Peter Rippon, that the decision not to pursue the investigation was entirely his, and that it was made solely for journalistic reasons.”On Oct. 13, Mr. Thompson said: “I was not notified or briefed about the ‘Newsnight’ investigation, nor was I involved in any way in the decision not to complete and air the investigation. I have no reason to doubt the public statement by the program’s editor, Peter Rippon, that the decision not to pursue the investigation was entirely his, and that it was made solely for journalistic reasons.”

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.