BBC head says broadcaster must reform or die
BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten said on Sunday that confidence had to be restored if the publicly funded corporation was to withstand pressure from rivals, especially Rupert Murdoch's media empire, which could try to take advantage of the turmoil.
If you're saying, 'Does the BBC need a thorough structural radical overhaul?', then absolutely it does, and that is what we will have to do, Patten, a one-time senior figure in Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party and the last British governor of Hong Kong, told BBC television.
The basis for the BBC's position in this country is the trust that people have in it, Patten said. If the BBC loses that, it's over.
George Entwistle resigned as director general on Saturday, just two months into the job, to take responsibility for the child sex allegation made on the flagship news programme Newsnight.
He will receive one year's salary, worth 450,000 pounds, as part of a pay-off deal, the BBC reported.
The witness in the Newsnight report, who said he suffered sexual abuse at a care home in the late 1970s, confessed on Friday he had misidentified the politician, Alistair McAlpine, and retracted his allegation. Newsnight admitted it had not shown the witness a picture of McAlpine, or approached McAlpine for comment before going to air.
Already
Be the first to comment.
