The BBC has broken its silence on the scandal involving one of its presenters who has been accused of paying ÂŁ35,000 for sexually explicit images of a young person who was 17 when the interactions began.
Director-general Tim Davie held his first press conference since The Sun contacted the BBC about the allegations via the press office on 6 July and ran with the story on Friday 7 July.
Davie gave an updated timeline of events and answered a series of questions from journalists.
The updated timeline is as follows. The first complaint was made in person at a BBC building on 18 May and then a complaint was lodged on 19 May through a 29-minute call with BBC Audience Services. This was then referred to the BBC’s Corporate Investigations Team (CIT). The CIT emailed the complainant on the same day asking for more details. This email was not responded to and the CIT reached out again through a phone call on 6 June, but again there was no response.
Of the original complaint on 19 May, the Davie: “It did not include an allegation of criminality – but was very serious.”
On 6 July, The Sun informed the BBC press office of the allegations and senior management had its first conversation with the presenter. The Sun ran with the story the following day which led to a weekend of speculation as male presenters came out one by one saying it wasn’t them.
Naturally, there are many things Davie refused to comment on. He would not say whether the presenter has offered to resign. When The Daily Mail asked whether he was “hopeful that we will see the BBC presenter back on-air” if he’s cleared of any wrongdoing, Davie replied: “We need to run a fair process and navigate the course fairly and transparently.”
The 17th director-general who has been in the role for almost three years said he had not spoken to the presenter. “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,” he said.
So what does it all mean for the BBC and the nation’s trust in one of its most important institutions?
There will be questions over why the BBC only reached out twice over what were “very serious” allegations. There will also be questions over why the first conversation with the presenter was only held last Thursday, weeks after the initial complaint – although Davie said it isn’t “odd” that the presenter wasn’t spoken to earlier. Yet more questions remain on why the CIT never alerted senior management about the claims, leaving Davie and others out of the loop until 6 July.
The BBC has paused its investigation while Met detectives carry out their own.
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