Huw Edwards‘ sentencing hearing is less than a week away and BBC boss Tim Davie has been questioning whether the corporation did the right thing in paying him nearly £200,000 ($260,000) between his arrest in November 2023 and his leaving several months later.
Speaking to the Communications and Digital Committee this afternoon, the Director General questioned whether the BBC could have been “more muscular in the situation with regard to payment.”
He said several times that he has been “reflecting” on the situation, with the corporation having been criticized for keeping the now-disgraced former news anchor on the payroll for such a long time before he eventually left and was then charged. Edwards earned his biggest pay packet for five years last year.
“It wasn’t an easy decision, it was really difficult getting the balance right because the arrest had been made [in November 2023] and there were no charges,” said Davie. “I even looked at the gov.uk guidelines on employee rights during suspension and the standard practice is to pay. I welcome the idea we look at that policy. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and with that you think, ‘Could you be more muscular in the situation with regard to payment?’.”
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The BBC has made a formal request for the £200,000 and “expects to make progress and get an answer soon,” according to Davie. He stressed that his team “acted in good faith throughout” the affair and were following instructions given to them by the police. A review into Edwards’ behavior, sparked by allegations in The Sun last year prior to his arrest, will not be made public but anything criminal will be handed over to the police, he added.
A separate review was recently launched by the BBC Board. Speaking alongside Davie, new BBC Chair and board overseer Samir Shah spoke passionately about the reputational damage done to the BBC by Edwards, who will be sentenced on Monday after pleading guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.
“The person who betrayed the trust of the nation and of his colleagues was Huw Edwards,” said Shah. “It was a shock to discover when it was announced that he had led this double life. On the face of it we trusted this presenter yet hidden secretly he was this figure who did the most appalling things and let’s not forget the victims – the children in those pictures.”
Shah, a former indie boss and current affairs exec, said he had worked with Edwards 30 years ago and felt “angry and betrayed” along with other researchers, directors and editors.
He praised Davie for making “reasonable” decisions around the scandal “in good faith.”
“The BBC stands for everything that isn’t censorship”
Davie was also questioned by the committee on Edwards’ place in the BBC archive, having led some major state announcements down the years including Queen Elizabeth II’s death and the 2019 general election coverage.
The corporation has been mulling over this problem since Edwards’ court appearance and recently took down a Doctor Who episode featuring the former anchor, but Davie said today it will take a light touch.
“What is broadcast or appears on iPlayer is a matter of editorial judgement,” he added. “In the real world you don’t have hundreds of these examples so all we can do is make sure we have the right level of oversight and act in a common sense way. The BBC stands for everything that isn’t censorship but where there is editorial justification, even when that is uncomfortable, it has to be the right situation. We have good experience in that.”
Review into Israel-Gaza coverage
Away from Edwards, Shah addressed criticisms of the BBC’s Israel-Gaza War reporting, following a report over the weekend that claimed the corporation’s coverage had been heavily biased against Israel, calling out its refusal to refer to Hamas as “terrorists.”
The BBC has faced a barrage of criticism from both sides of the conflict and Shah said making the conflict the subject of the news team’s next thematic review will be “strongly considered.”
“The Middle East conflict is one area we should consider very seriously to be the subject of a deep systematic analysis,” he added. “It is a very difficult story.”
He stressed that he feels the BBC News team has “done a great job on Gaza” in very difficult circumstances.
Thematic reviews have in the past explored areas like the BBC’s reporting on the UK economy, and migration.
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