BBC news executives ‘step aside’

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.

Mr Entwistle resigned after a Newsnight report led to a former Tory treasurer being wrongly accused of child abuse.

BBC boss resigns

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.

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.

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