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Revelations now that the BBC KNEW about a police investigation into sacked DJ Scott Mills in 2017, once again highlights the BBC’s REFUSAL to answer The Eye’s questions concerning the string of scandals which officials apparently cannot free themselves of!
In a statement the BBC have said: “…the BBC was made aware in 2017 of the existence of an ongoing police investigation, which was subsequently closed in 2019 with no arrest or charge being made. We are doing more work to understand the detail of what was known by the BBC at this time.”.
On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Police (Met) announced that the boy at the centre of the sexual offences investigation which led to the sacking of Mills, was under the age of 16.
However the Mills affair is just the latest extraordinary controversy that the new Director General (DG) Matt Brittin will have to deal with, and they include concern about the standard of its drama output.
Darren Tierney, Permanent Secretary at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), wrote to the former DG, Tim Davie, detailing his alarm about a fictional drama series.
Mr Tierney declared that it had: “caused worry among our interviewers”.
He added that the programme had also undermined the “delicate relationship” with the public.
Clearly other ‘relationships’ will have to be examined as well, by Mr Brittin (who has been described as an “odd fit”).
Both Mr Davie, and his Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of News Deborah Turness resigned over a huge row concerning a Panorama programme about Donald Trump.
These shocking resignations came amid criticism that the BBC Panorama (where our Editor, Welshman Phil Parry has worked) misled viewers by editing together two parts of a speech.
Ms Turness has rejected claims of institutional bias and said that journalists “aren’t corrupt”, proclaiming that BBC journalists are “hardworking people”, although
She announced: “…there is no escaping the fact he (Mr Davie) was very slow to act…”
The BBC reported: “This is seismic. To lose both the director general and the CEO of BBC News at the same time is unprecedented. It’s an extraordinary moment in the history of the BBC”.
The Guardian published: ‘In an announcement that caused shock within the corporation, Davie said his departure was “entirely my decision” and it comes as the BBC prepares to apologise for the way it edited a Trump speech’.
The Daily Mail stated: “…the scandal-hit broadcaster was this week plunged into a fresh crisis after an internal dossier exposed a string of incidents that demonstrate serious apparent bias in the Corporation’s reporting”.
Enormous condemnation of the corporation has hit social media too, with one critic saying there was pro-nationalist party Plaid Cymru (Plaid) bias to be addressed in BBC Cymru Wales (BBC CW).
The Daily Telegraph first broke the story of bias, but the BBC (where Phil was for 23 years) seemed unable to get on the front foot in the face of a deluge of damaging headlines about claims that it was systemic.
It appeared there was a rift between the BBC board and the news division with some arguing the corporation had, for too long, failed to address institutional bias, and others questioning whether what unfolded had been an orchestrated – and politicised – campaign against the corporation which claimed two big scalps.
The BBC had allowed the story to fester – and the White House called a scene in the programme at the heart of it all “fake news”.
The US president himself also weighed into the debate saying in a post on his Truth Social platform, that he celebrated the resignations and accused the BBC of “doctoring” his speech as well as of “trying to step on the scales of a presidential election”.
At a board meeting to discuss the growing crisis Ms Turness was apparently “ripped apart“.
Even before the Mills story was made public, criticism of the BBC was intense with former Prime Minister (PM) Boris Johnson unleashing a furious tirade against the corporation, in which he also slammed two veteran presenters, and demanded Mr Davie’s resignation.
The huge broadcaster had been accused of selectively editing a speech by President Trump to make it appear clearer that he had encouraged the US Capitol attack, according to a former external adviser to the corporation.
An edition of Panorama, broadcast a week before the US election, spliced together clips of a speech by him made on January 6 2021, which suggested that he told the crowd: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you, and we fight. We fight like hell”.
Worries have been raised in the past, too, about the corporation’s impartiality, despite Mr Davie declaring in Cardiff soon after his appointment: “If you want to be an opinionated columnist or partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC”.
BBC rules underline this, and say that staff should also avoid using disclaimers such as ‘My views, not the BBC’s’ in their biographies and profiles, as they provide no defence against personal expressions of opinion.
It seems, though, that taking disciplinary action earlier against him was tempered by the knowledge that there were few alternatives, but the decision has now been taken out of the hands of senior officials
Perhaps the new person in charge will scrutinise complaints more closely, such as those of President Trump and critics of behaviour by the BBC over the Mills business, as well as all the other past controversies.
After the scandals it had seemed reasonable to ask the BBC about them.
This is the (extremely polite) request Phil put to their Media Office (MO) on December 19 2024, and he was encouraged because on the BBC’s website it is stated: “Enquiries from journalists will be responded to as quickly as possible”.
Hello.
I am Editor of a news website called The Eye.
Could you please answer the following questions:
1. In the light of the Gregg Wallace, and other affairs, what, if any, programmes are now not to be transmitted, and how many of them are there?
2. What, if any, changes have been made to your Whistleblowers’ Charter, and what are the dates of these?
3. What, if any, changes have been made to your safeguarding policies, and what are the dates of these?
Statements can be made by return to this address – it is checked constantly and is totally secure.
Thank you,
Phil Parry
To date, though, there has been NO reply apart from two automated messages saying that the requests had been received.
Perhaps these questions are too difficult to answer when yet ANOTHER outrage has hit the BBC, and it has now emerged that executives knew about a police investigation into the person NINE years ago!
The memories of Phil’s, remarkable decades long award-winning career in journalism (during which complaints often made the news) as he was gripped by the rare and incurable neurological disabling condition Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia (HSP), have been released in a major book ‘A GOOD STORY’. Order the book now!
Tomorrow – how during his long journalistic career, Phil was always taught DO NOT USE JARGON AND SAY WHAT YOU MEAN!
This is now highlighted by a bulletin from the Bank of England (BoE) about the state of the economy in these uncertain times, which would have been complete gobbledygook to Mrs Jones in Rhyl.
