The chairman of the BBC Trust made his first public intervention in the Jimmy Savile affair, arguing that he was confident there had been no "corporate cover-up" when Newsnight dropped its planned investigation into allegations of sexual abuse by the presenter in December of last year.
Lord Patten broke his near two-week silence at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch on Wednesday to defend the involvement of director general George Entwistle and other senior executives who were aware of the proposed film at the time – and to provide a qualified endorsement of the editor of Newsnight for his decision to drop the investigation.
The peer insisted that Peter Rippon, Newsnight's editor, "was not leaned on" by any of the senior executives he said were made aware of the Savile investigation at the time – and added that "whether or not you think he [Rippon] made the right judgment" everybody "is incredibly good at being wise after the event".
The senior executives aware of the Newsnight film were, Patten said, Entwistle – then director of vision, Mark Thompson, the former director general, and Helen Boaden, the director of news. All were alerted about the film because of the investigation's sensitivity and because the BBC was planning to broadcast tributes to the recently deceased Savile last Christmas.
"They did not interfere to stop it," Patten said, adding that "I react quite badly" to "questions about their journalistic integrity". The BBC Trust chairman had also observed that it was wrong to suggest that the film had been dropped because of "a corporate cover-up" because that was "not how the BBC operates".
Patten said he had not seen the script or treatment of the Newsnight film, which insiders at the programme said was prepared because their investigation into Savile was so advanced. But the chairman indicated that he expected the abandoned Newsnight film to be among the subjects examined by the planned BBC independent inquiry.
The chairman said it was "literally inconceivable" that the planned inquiry – whose chair or lead has yet to be named – could proceed unless "the person conducting it was not absolutely satisfied with the terms of reference". The BBC has not yet announced who will lead the inquiry, but has confirmed it will be someone from outside the BBC.
The former Conservative cabinet minster said that he was not aware of similar allegations of wrongdoing made against any other BBC presenter, after police said on Tuesday that they were investigating 120 lines of inquiry about alleged sexual abuse by Savile relating to up to 25 women. The full scale of the allegations about the radio and television star's abuse first emerged last week in an ITV documentary.
Patten also said the he had written to Entwistle to ask for reassurance that the BBC's harassment and child protection policies are of "a gold standard" as the broadcaster contends with allegations that some of the abuse by Savile took place on its premises.
He said that he wanted the director general "to assure us" that the BBC child protection policies "are up to date" and "effective in protecting minors". He released a copy of the letter he had written to Entwistle, which also asked for reassurances about the BBC's sexual harassment policies.
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