ITV boss Dame Carolyn McCall referred to as to face MPs’ questions amid This Morning row
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TV boss Dame Carolyn McCall has been referred to as to present proof to a parliamentary committee to reply questions concerning the broadcaster’s strategy to safeguarding and grievance dealing with following the departure of Phillip Schofield from This Morning.
The chief government, who wrote a letter to Parliament on Wednesday by which she revealed the broadcaster had commissioned an exterior overview within the wake of Schofield’s exit, would face questions from MPs on the This Morning row at a session of the Culture, Media and Sport committee on June 14.
Schofield, 61, resigned from the broadcaster final week and was dropped by his expertise company YMU after admitting to an “unwise but not illegal” affair with a youthful male colleague.
Dame Caroline Dinenage, who was one of many addressees of Wednesday’s letter, mentioned in a written response on Thursday: “The Committee regards the media industry’s duty of care towards its staff a matter of the highest importance.
“Whilst the recent coverage focuses on the Schofield case, it also raises fundamental issues about safeguarding and complaint handling both at ITV and more widely across the media.
“These issues should, particularly in the case of public service broadcasters, be open to scrutiny. The public must have confidence in the robustness of public service broadcasters’ safeguarding procedures.
“Whilst these are issues that we want to discuss first with ITV, we will also consider them in our regular scrutiny sessions with other public service broadcasters, including the BBC later this month and Channel 4 later in the year.”
Following reviews Dame Carolyn was requested to seem at a parliamentary session subsequent week, it has been confirmed the session on June 6 beforehand scheduled with ITV and different business public service broadcasters will deal with “its intended purpose of scrutinising the Government’s draft Media Bill”, whereas the session on June 14 may see Dame Carolyn face questions from MPs on the This Morning row.
It comes a day after Dame Carolyn despatched a letter to tradition secretary Lucy Frazer, DCMS Committee chair Dame Caroline and Ofcom’s chief government Dame Melanie Dawes, to substantiate ITV had instructed barrister Jane Mulcahy KC of Blackstone Chambers, to hold out an exterior overview of the info following Schofield’s departure.
The letter mentioned there was “a lot of inaccuracy” in reporting and the previous worker Schofield admitted to an affair with has been provided assist all through.
Since Schofield’s resignation, This Morning has been affected by allegations of “toxicity”.
The present’s former resident physician, Dr Ranj Singh, has hit out at a “toxic” tradition, saying he raised considerations about “bullying and discrimination” two years in the past when he labored there – and afterwards felt like he was “managed out” for whistleblowing.
In the letter on Wednesday, the ITV boss mentioned that an exterior overview carried out following a grievance made by Dr Ranj discovered “no evidence of bullying or discrimination”.
Schofield’s relationship came about whereas the TV star was nonetheless married to spouse Stephanie Lowe and earlier than he got here out publicly as homosexual.
In a press release on Friday final week, he mentioned he was “deeply sorry” for mendacity concerning the “consensual on-off relationship” with a youthful male colleague at This Morning, describing it as “unwise, but not illegal”.
Schofield had offered This Morning since 2002, with Holly Willoughby becoming a member of the programme in 2009.
Willoughby is because of return to the present on Monday after the half-term break, having taken an early vacation after news of Schofield’s departure emerged.