Culture Secretary to talk to BBC boss over ‘deeply concerning’ allegations
C
ulture Secretary Lucy Frazer will maintain pressing talks with BBC director-general Tim Davie over “deeply concerning” allegations that an unnamed presenter paid a young person for sexually express photographs.
Senior officers have instructed the broadcaster the allegations reported by The Sun newspaper have to be investigated “urgently and sensitively”, with the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) saved up to date.
Ms Frazer and Mr Davie may have a cellphone name on Sunday because the BBC comes underneath stress over its dealing with of the criticism.
The newspaper mentioned the BBC star paid the particular person, mentioned to have been 17 when the funds started, £35,000 in alternate for the pictures.
A DCMS spokeswoman mentioned: “These allegations are deeply concerning.
“As a public service broadcaster in receipt of public funding, senior officials have stressed to the BBC that the allegations must be investigated urgently and sensitively, with the department kept informed.
“The Culture Secretary will be speaking to Tim Davie later today.”
It is the most recent disaster for Mr Davie to reply to after he survived calls to resign over his dealing with of Gary Lineker being briefly taken off air in March after the soccer pundit criticised Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “cruel” asylum coverage.
The teenager’s mom instructed The Sun she noticed an image of the presenter on her baby’s cellphone “sitting on a sofa in his house in his underwear”.
The mom mentioned she was instructed it was “a picture from some kind of video call” and seemed like he was “getting ready for my child to perform for him”.
The household had been mentioned to have complained to the BBC on May 19 however allegedly grew to become pissed off that the star remained on air. It is known he isn’t on account of be on air within the close to future.
The BBC has been urged to behave “very swiftly” to cope with the claims.
As public consideration and concern grows the BBC goes to should act very swiftly to cope with these allegations and to set out what they’re doing to research them
Victoria Atkins, the monetary secretary to the Treasury, instructed Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “These are very, very serious allegations and the BBC have said they have processes in place.
“But as public attention and concern grows the BBC is going to have to act very swiftly to deal with these allegations and to set out what they are doing to investigate them.”
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves urged the broadcasters to “speed up their processes” in investigating such allegations.
The Labour MP instructed the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I do feel that I often come on this programme and we do start with another crisis at the BBC.
“The BBC do need to speed up their processes, it looks like these issues were raised in May, we’re now in July and the presenter stayed on air.
“That’s not good enough so the BBC need to get their house in order and give greater clarity to what on earth has gone on in this case and what they are trying to do to put it right.”
Former residence secretary Priti Patel mentioned the BBC’s response has been “derisory”.
“They must provide the victim and his family a full and transparent investigation,” she mentioned.
“The BBC, which is funded by licence fee-payers, has become a faceless and unaccountable organisation.”
Media lawyer Mark Stephens mentioned the BBC dealing with of the criticism had been a “shambles”, arguing it had “really dropped the ball”.
“And it does seem that they’ve also caused this to escalate, because it was the frustration with the BBC not acting that led to the family to go to the Sun newspaper,” he instructed Times Radio.
“And that I think is reckless, because of course what has happened is we’ve seen all this conjecture on social media.”
A variety of BBC stars publicly mentioned they weren’t the presenter on the centre of the allegations, amid heavy hypothesis concerning the id on social media.
Gary Lineker tweeted: “Hate to disappoint the haters but it’s not me.”
Rylan Clark wrote: “Not sure why my name’s floating about but re that story in the Sun – that ain’t me babe. I’m currently filming a show in Italy for the BBC, so take my name out ya mouths.”
If, at any level, new data involves gentle or is supplied – together with by way of newspapers – this might be acted upon appropriately, according to inside processes
Jeremy Vine mentioned: “Just to say I’m very much looking forward to hosting my radio show on Monday — whoever the ‘BBC Presenter’ in the news is, I have the same message for you as Rylan did earlier: it certainly ain’t me.”
Nicky Campbell steered he had contacted police about being falsely talked about on-line in reference to the story.
He tweeted a screenshot which featured the Metropolitan Police brand and the phrases: “Thank you for contacting the Metropolitan Police Service to report your crime.”
“I think it’s important to take a stand. There’s just too many of these people on social media. Thanks for your support friends,” he wrote.
A BBC spokesperson mentioned: “We treat any allegations very seriously and we have processes in place to proactively deal with them.
“As part of that, if we receive information that requires further investigation or examination we will take steps to do this. That includes actively attempting to speak to those who have contacted us in order to seek further detail and understanding of the situation.
“If we get no reply to our attempts or receive no further contact that can limit our ability to progress things but it does not mean our enquiries stop.
“If, at any point, new information comes to light or is provided – including via newspapers – this will be acted upon appropriately, in line with internal processes.”