Pressured by the government, the BBC said on Sunday it would investigate and suspend one of its presenters. He was accused in the press by a mother of paying her child to send child pornography.
The mother’s testimony was published by The Sun on Friday evening after a star BBC presenter accused her of paying her 17-year-old child tens of thousands of pounds in exchange for child pornography. Indicates whether it is female or male.
According to the newspaper, the family contacted the BBC on May 19 to inform them of the situation, but the presenter was still on the air for several weeks.
The BBC said in a statement that “a male member of its staff has been suspended” after an emergency phone call between Culture Minister Lucy Fraser and the public broadcaster’s chief executive Tim Davey. The facts as quickly as possible.”
“Officers contacted”
“This is a complex and rapidly changing set of circumstances” and “it is important that these topics are dealt with fairly and carefully,” the committee added. “We have also contacted external authorities in accordance with our protocols,” the BBC said.
On Sunday evening, London police said they had told the BBC about the case “but no formal referrals or charges have been made”. “We will need more information before deciding what further action to take,” the Metropolitan Police said.
The allegations, which are making headlines in the British media, have sparked strong reactions in the political class, with the Ministry of Culture calling on the BBC to investigate “urgently and sensitively”.
“Given the nature of the allegations, it is important to give the BBC time to carry out this investigation, establish the facts and take appropriate action,” the culture minister said on Twitter. In its press release, the group confirms that it was informed of a complaint “in May” and that the “new allegations” reached it on Thursday.
Embarrassing new case
“A team of BBC investigators have been investigating the case since it was reported and the file is being actively pursued,” Tim Davey said in an internal memo, quoted by PA. The BBC said on Friday it would “treat all allegations very seriously” and “have a procedure in place to deal with them proactively”.
It’s an embarrassing new issue for the public audiovisual group, whose impartiality is regularly questioned and former prime minister Boris Johnson, who was forced to step down in April over a conflict of interest case before appointing the head of the BBC, was forced to resign. Get credit.
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Former home secretary and Tory MP Priti Patel took to Twitter to call the BBC’s response to the new case “petty”. “The BBC, but also the other channels, need to pull themselves together because we seem to be going from scandal to scandal,” Labor opposition MP Rachel Reeves responded on Sky News on Sunday.
Last May, private channel ITV’s Philip Schofield resigned after admitting an affair with a young colleague he helped hire. In order to manage this matter, the administration of the chain is involved even within the Parliament.
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