BBC Boss 'Was Unaware' Of Child Abuse Slur

BBC director-general George Entwistle has said he has given no thought to axing Newsnight over a report that wrongly implicated former Conservative Party treasurer Lord McAlpine in a child abuse scandal.

He admitted he did not know about the Newsnight investigation until the day after it was broadcast and had not seen newspaper reports casting doubts on the probe.

The BBC boss said he had also been unaware of a tweet 12 hours before the programme aired, from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism - which worked on the report - suggesting it was going to identify a senior political figure.

"I didn't see that tweet. This tweet was not brought to my attention so I found out about this film after it had gone out," he told the BBC's Today programme.

"In the light of what has happened here I wish this was referred to me, but it wasn't. I found out about the film the following day."

Mr Entwistle said the 32-year-old flagship news programme had "a fantastic investigative record" and it would be "disproportionate at this stage to talk about closing Newsnight down".

However, he said the report on child abuse allegations was "unacceptable" and "should never have gone out", warning that staff involved in the programme could now face disciplinary action.

"We should not have put out a film that was so fundamentally wrong. What happened here was completely unacceptable," he said.

BBC Television Centre in White City, west London

"I have taken clear and decisive action to start to find out what happened and put things right."

Mr Entwistle, who had moved quickly to try to limit the damage by appointing BBC Scotland director Ken MacQuarrie to produce a report into why basic errors were made, said he expected it to be on his desk by Sunday.

"Further action will follow from that - disciplinary if necessary," he said.

Pressed about his own position, he insisted he had no intention of resigning - although he accepted his future lay in the hands of the BBC Trust, which described the report as a "deeply troubling episode".

The Trust also offered its own apology in a statement, adding it had "impressed upon the director-general the need to get to the bottom of this as a matter of the utmost urgency and will expect appropriate action to be taken as quickly as possible".

Despite a number of requests, the BBC told Sky News it would not be making Mr Entwistle, or any other executive at the corporation, available for interview on Saturday.

Newsnight made an unreserved apology on air on Friday night  for the broadcast on November 2 after Steve Messham admitted the man who abused him as a teenager at a care home in North Wales was not Lord McAlpine.

The 70-year-old peer found himself at the centre of a storm of internet speculation after Mr Messham told the BBC2 programme he had been abused by a senior Conservative from the Thatcher era.

In a statement, the corporation said: "We broadcast Mr Messham's claim but did not identify the individual concerned. Mr Messham has tonight made a statement that makes clear he wrongly identified his abuser and has apologised.

Lawyers say Lord McAlpine's reputation has been 'severely damaged'

"We also apologise unreservedly for having broadcast this report."

Earlier, solicitors for Lord McAlpine indicated they were preparing to sue for defamation, saying their client's reputation had been left in "tatters".

There will also be a "pause" in all ongoing Newsnight investigations while the BBC is suspending all co-productions with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Nevertheless, the disclosures come as another blow for the corporation which is still reeling from the Jimmy Savile scandal - including a decision to drop a Newsnight investigation exposing the late DJ as a child abuser.

Tory MP Rob Wilson, who was a fierce critic of the BBC over the Savile affair, questioned whether Newsnight could survive the latest fiasco.

He said Mr MacQuarrie needed to examine whether the programme on the Bryn Estyn children's home scandal had been an "over-compensation" for what happened over Savile or a "diversionary tactic" to draw attention away from the BBC.

The programme had included an interview with Mr Messham who described how he used to be taken from the children's home to a hotel near Wrexham to be abused by men, including one described as a former senior Conservative.

On Friday, Lord McAlpine finally broke cover to issue a vehement public denial of the "wholly false and seriously defamatory" claims against him.

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