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| Jimmy Savile scandal: BBC won't hide from the truth, says Patten | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The chair of the BBC Trust has insisted the corporation's two independent inquiries into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal will hold nothing back in establishing the truth, "however terrible". | |
| Lord Patten's pledge came as the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said the BBC needed to be far less secretive in the wake of the allegations relating to the late TV presenter. | Lord Patten's pledge came as the communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said the BBC needed to be far less secretive in the wake of the allegations relating to the late TV presenter. |
| Patten said the corporation "must tell the truth and face up to the truth about itself, however terrible", promising there will be "no covering our backs". | Patten said the corporation "must tell the truth and face up to the truth about itself, however terrible", promising there will be "no covering our backs". |
| He suggested it was unlikely that no one knew about Savile's abuse. "Can it really be the case that no one knew what he was doing?" he wrote in the Mail on Sunday. | |
| "Did some turn a blind eye to criminality? Did some prefer not to follow up their suspicions because of this criminal's popularity and place in the schedules? Were reports of criminality put aside or buried? Even those of us who were not there at the time are inheritors of the shame." | "Did some turn a blind eye to criminality? Did some prefer not to follow up their suspicions because of this criminal's popularity and place in the schedules? Were reports of criminality put aside or buried? Even those of us who were not there at the time are inheritors of the shame." |
| One inquiry set up by the corporation will look into the dropping of the Newsnight investigation into Savile while the other will examine the BBC's culture and practices during the years the former DJ worked there. | |
| Pickles said that to restore its public standing, the corporation needed to be more transparent, including opening itself up to freedom of information requests. | |
| "I think it's in all our interests for the BBC to be held in the highest esteem that it deserves and I think the problem at the heart of the BBC is that the organisation is too secretive," he told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan. | "I think it's in all our interests for the BBC to be held in the highest esteem that it deserves and I think the problem at the heart of the BBC is that the organisation is too secretive," he told Sky's Dermot Murnaghan. |
| "I don't think it can seal itself away from the real world and I think part of the process of re-establishing the BBC in the affection of the nation is that the BBC has to be far more open." | |
| Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said there needed to be an over-arching independent inquiry into the Savile case, which looked beyond the BBC's role. | Labour's deputy leader, Harriet Harman, said there needed to be an over-arching independent inquiry into the Savile case, which looked beyond the BBC's role. |
| "There are big lessons to be learned here, not just for the BBC, although the epicentre of it was at the BBC, but elsewhere, because when something like this comes out, there is an assumption: 'How could we have gone astray from our normal policy that protecting vulnerable children must take priority over the rights of protecting adults?' | |
| "That is not actually the situation because that is always under challenge." | "That is not actually the situation because that is always under challenge." |
| Harman said that often MPs were concerned with protecting the anonymity of alleged abusers but victims needed assurance that they would be believed. | |
| The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, accepted that "things went badly wrong and it should not happen again" but said that an inquiry of the kind proposed by Harman ran the risk of slowing down the investigation. "There is always a danger if you set up a very substantial inquiry process of that kind that it takes much longer to get to the truth. | The justice secretary, Chris Grayling, accepted that "things went badly wrong and it should not happen again" but said that an inquiry of the kind proposed by Harman ran the risk of slowing down the investigation. "There is always a danger if you set up a very substantial inquiry process of that kind that it takes much longer to get to the truth. |
| "What should be happening right now first and foremost – and clearly is happening with the police – is we should be looking to see who is still around who was involved, and criminal proceedings should follow if people were guilty of participating in these offences alongside Jimmy Savile. That is of paramount importance." | "What should be happening right now first and foremost – and clearly is happening with the police – is we should be looking to see who is still around who was involved, and criminal proceedings should follow if people were guilty of participating in these offences alongside Jimmy Savile. That is of paramount importance." |