BBC cleared of coverup in Savile case, But a report faults the British broadcaster's decision to drop a news investigation

[childadvocate]

BBC cleared of coverup in Jimmy Savile case
But a report faults the British broadcaster's decision to drop a news
investigation of pedophilia allegations against the late TV host, as
well as ensuing ineptitude.
December 19, 2012 By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

LONDON — The BBC did not deliberately cover up sex abuse allegations
against one of its most famous hosts in order to go ahead with tribute
shows to him after his death, but its decision to drop a news
investigation into the accusations was "seriously flawed," a highly
anticipated report released Wednesday says....

Pollard, a prominent former television news executive, was
commissioned by the BBC to conduct an independent inquiry into why the
corporation chose to kill an investigation of Savile by its program
"Newsnight" that was on track to be aired in late 2011.

Savile, an eccentric figure who wore tracksuits and long hair, had
died a few months earlier after many years as a children's television
host at the BBC. Other divisions of the broadcasting corporation were
planning lavish holiday tributes to him.

Those tributes went ahead, and the "Newsnight" program was shelved.
But this year, a rival network broadcast its own investigation of
Savile, who is now suspected by police of having been a predatory
pedophile responsible for molesting or raping dozens of young girls,
some of them on BBC premises.

Pollard's report, based on interviews and a review of more than 10,000
emails and other documents, concludes that there had not been any
undue pressure from senior management to pull the "Newsnight"
investigation in order to protect the BBC's reputation or to continue
with the tribute shows. "Newsnight" editor Peter Rippon made an honest
but wrong assessment that the evidence in the investigation was not
strong enough, the report says.

"The 'Newsnight' investigators got the story right," Pollard said.
"The decision by their editor to drop the investigation was clearly
flawed and the way it was taken was wrong, but I believe it was done
in good faith. It was not done to protect the Savile tribute
programs."

However, once the accusations surfaced on rival network ITV and
questions began to be raised about the aborted "Newsnight" program,
the BBC responded with breathtaking incompetence, the report says in a
particularly damning finding.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/dec/19/world/la-fg-britain-bbc-report-20121220


The Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal breaks
28 September: the scandal of Jimmy Savile's child abuse allegations
goes public – and the BBC investigates itself
Shelley Jofre, Panorama reporter
The Observer, Saturday 22 December 2012

When the story broke that Exposure was going to be doing a story on
Jimmy Savile, and that Newsnight had somehow suppressed it, I
suggested to my editor, Tom Giles, that we should do something about
it. Like any journalist I just wanted to know what on earth had gone
on.

The story was moving so quickly we made the film in a week – it
normally takes a month. We were unravelling the whole thing on the
hoof and managed to gather a huge amount of information about what
happened with Savile at the BBC over four decades. From the
testimonies, some of the stories seem jawdropping. Our archive
producer did an amazing job of unearthing powerful footage of Savile
so we saw how overtly sexual he was, groping and leering at women on
the programmes we all watched as children.

The most poignant was the group of cub scouts who appeared on Jim'll
Fix It. The archive producer located footage of the boy I interviewed
anonymously as a grown man. You could see the joy and happiness on his
face as a nine-year-old during what should have been one of the
biggest moments of his childhood, then he was molested shortly
afterwards in Savile's dressing room. He was so ashamed he didn't tell
anyone for 40 years....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/dec/23/jimmy-savile-child-abuse-scandal