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| BBC news executives 'step aside' | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The BBC's director of news, Helen Boaden, and her deputy have "stepped aside" pending the outcome of an internal review. | |
| The move by Ms Boaden and Steve Mitchell comes after director general George Entwistle quit on Saturday. | |
| The BBC said it was not commenting yet, but there will be an announcement within hours. | The BBC said it was not commenting yet, but there will be an announcement within hours. |
| Mr Entwistle resigned after a Newsnight report led to a former Tory treasurer being wrongly accused of child abuse. | Mr Entwistle resigned after a Newsnight report led to a former Tory treasurer being wrongly accused of child abuse. |
| He had also commissioned two inquiries into an earlier Newsnight decision not to broadcast a report on allegations of abuse by former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile. The DJ died last year and tribute programmes were aired over the Christmas and New Year period. | |
| Clear line of control | |
| Ms Boaden was director of BBC News and Mr Entwistle was director of BBC Vision at the time of the decision not to broadcast the Savile allegations late last year. | Ms Boaden was director of BBC News and Mr Entwistle was director of BBC Vision at the time of the decision not to broadcast the Savile allegations late last year. |
| Mr Entwistle said the pair had a brief discussion about the Newsnight investigation but he did not ask Ms Boaden for further details, he told MPs during an appearance. | |
| One of the inquiries into the Newsnight Savile report is being headed by former Sky News head Nick Pollard. He is looking into why the six-week investigation was shelved. | |
| Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell have been asked to surrender all their responsibilities as head and deputy head of BBC News, pending the results of the Pollard inquiry. | |
| Ms Boaden has overall editorial and managerial responsibility for UK-wide and global news and current affairs on radio, television and online. | |
| Fran Unsworth, head of newsgathering, and Ceri Thomas, editor of BBC's Radio 4 Today programme have been asked to fill their respective roles, for the time being. | |
| The acting director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, and the chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten, have concluded that BBC News needs a new clear line of management control, BBC business editor Robert Peston reported. | |
| Mr Davie and Lord Patten are understood to believe that Ms Boaden's and Mr Mitchell's decision to withdraw from all decision-making on the way the BBC reports the Jimmy Savile scandal has created confusion at BBC News about who is in charge, our correspondent added. | |
| He said the decision to ask Ms Boaden and Mr Mitchell to stand aside would have been rooted in the results of this weekend's investigation into a later journalistic mistake by Newsnight, it broadcast 10 days ago of allegations that a senior Tory was involved in child abuse. | |
| However neither Ms Boaden or Mr Mitchell were in the decision-making chain that led to Newsnight's broadcast. |