‘It’s just Alice in Wonderland. It’s very difficult to make sense of’
A poll suggests that people want to see Huw Edwards back at the BBC, a week after a story emerged that he had paid a young person for explicit images.
The Sun last weekend revealed that a high-profile presenter at the broadcaster paid a youngster £35,000 for explicit images, and initially reported that the payments began when he was 17, which is a criminal offence. The BBC then suspended the then-unnamed presenter and the Met was notified. On Wednesday, it concluded there was no criminal case to answer.
Edwards wife, Vicky Flind, later released a statement on her husband’s behalf naming him as the presenter and revealing that he was receiving in-patient hospital care and “suffering from serious mental health issues” and would be there for the “foreseeable future”.
The BBC’s Newsnight programme then went on to carry claims of inappropriate behaviour by 61-year-old Edwards against a number of staff.
In a poll for the Mirror, 53 per cent of respondents said they wanted Edwards back on the BBC News at Ten if he is cleared by bosses of serious wrongdoing. Just over a third, 32 per cent, felt he should not be allowed to continue.
Among 45 to 64-year-olds, more than 60 per cent backed his return from suspension over the allegations.
The Survation poll found that 51 per cent of respondents thought the BBC had handled the allegations “quite badly”, or “very badly”. Just 7 per cent thought it has handled it “very well”.
The family of the youngster involved first contacted the BBC on May 19, but it was some seven weeks before Edwards was suspended. The presenter, his wife said, only found out about the claims a week ago. The young person at the centre of the story has rubbished the claims made by his family and has not spoken to The Sun.
There is a growing feeling at the broadcaster that Newsnight’s report should have been handled by HR, rather than broadcasted.
Former BBC correspondent Jon Sopel has spoken out about the matter, saying he has been contacted by a “surprisingly large number of staff – some senior, very senior, some junior – about how distraught they were at some of the BBC coverage.”
The 64-year-old continued: “They’ve tried to raise it with bosses and their complaints fell on deaf ears. I think there has been considerable disquiet over the way the coverage has unfolded on the BBC in the past 24, 48 hours. Senior managers in news, do they not have the duty of care and responsibility that Tim Davie, the director general, was talking about?
“Huw is employed by BBC News. So for the managers to say, ‘Well, no, we’re just interested in the journalism and we’re not interested in the duty of care…’ It’s just Alice in Wonderland. It’s very difficult to make sense of.”
Sopel added that there almost seemed to be “gusto, almost glee” with which some people in BBC News were doing their own investigations into Edwards, trying to “bring down somebody who only a week ago was presenting BBC News coverage. There is this weirdness.”
Emily Maitlis has called the BBC’s reporting around the Edwards case, “a bit distasteful”.
The former Newsnight host said: “If you know this stuff about a colleague, why isn’t your first duty to then go to HR or a senior manager, rather than turning it into a news story? You are in a weird place if the way you raise a concern about a colleague is not through HR or a complaints process, but by breaking a story about them because they’re famous.”
Channel 4 News anchor Krishnan Guru-Murthy has also come out in support of Edwards.
He tweeted: “I don’t know about you but if there is no serious criminality, abuse of power or corruption, the private lives of public figures are of no concern to me.” The BBC have declined to comment on any comeback for Edwards as they have an ongoing inquiry into his conduct, which includes the complaints made by staff members. But a report on its news website this week stated that there were three options available to bosses at the end of the internal investigation. It said: “It could end in a reprimand. It could end in dismissal. It could end in reputational rehabilitation.”
The Mirror reported that Newsnight’s coverage had split the BBC, with some calling it “appalling”, while others saw it as brave.
It further reported that a staff meeting was held Thursday, where the executive producer reiterated his commitment to investigate anything regardless of the subject.
Meanwhile, a friend of Edwards, who writes for The Times, has said he believes it will be a long time before the broadcaster returns to TV screens.
Andrew Billen told Sky News: “I’d love to think he would be behind that desk again in a few weeks or months and presenting the election night, but I somehow doubt it.
“I really hope he will have a career in broadcasting beyond this… And if not that then maybe a job in academia. But he’s got to get past what is clearly a severe mental breakdown at the moment.”
Edwards has reportedly been upset by the coverage, with friends saying “he feels let down” by how the story has been reported.
“You can be a very highly paid and very famous and very respected television presenter and be a vulnerable person too. I think we have found that poor Huw is very vulnerable,” Billen added.
His comments come as a survey by YouGov found 60 per cent of people think the media has focused too much on the story and just 15 per cent saying they believe the media has focused the right amount on the issue.
Related links:
BBC’s Sophie Raworth mistakenly announces that Huw Edwards has resigned
Huw Edwards named as BBC presenter accused of paying for explicit images
