No idea if this is the full facts but I lay it before you to consider for yourselves….
BBC reporter who tried to expose Jimmy Savile scandal claims he has now been ‘forced out’ of his job along with other colleagues ‘on the right side of the argument’
The BBC has forced out journalists who helped uncover Jimmy Savile’s horrific child abuse because bosses regard them as ‘traitors’, a senior reporter said today.
Meirion Jones claims whistleblowers have been either squeezed out or moved into dead-end roles after they helped expose the paedophile.
Mr Jones, who has left the corporation after 23 years, says that management refused to sack anyone but instead would ‘drip poison’ about him and ‘make life hell’ for others they considered ‘traitors to the BBC’.
He told Press Gazette: ‘People said they won’t sack you after Savile but they will make your life hell. Everyone involved on the right side of the Savile argument has been forced out of the BBC’.
The award-winning investigative journalist was told there was no place for him at the BBC three days after finishing a documentary of Fake Sheikh Mazher Mahmood.
He said: ‘I went to an employment lawyer. He said if you sue the BBC you will win. However it will take a year and the BBC will settle on the steps of the court.
‘I thought about it and I thought I’ll take voluntary redundancy and go in that case.’
His colleague of 23 years Liz MacKean, who worked on the Savile story documentary with him left in spring 2014.
She told Press Gazette: ‘I didn’t feel encouraged to stay. I felt I would do better to work outside the BBC.
‘There were still so many people who have been shown to be on the wrong side of the story who have stayed.’
Mr Jones claims that Tom Giles, who the Panorama editor in charge of the ‘What the BBC Knew’ Savile documentary was also ‘squeezed out’ into a strategy role ‘going nowhere’.
He says that former BBC head of global news Peter Horrocks, who took over at the height of the scandal was also ‘squeezed out’ because he ‘forced through’ the Panorama.
Mr Horrocks is now in a senior role at the Open University.
But several others involved in the scandal managed to keep their jobs.
This is what happens when you cross the lefties at the bbc, when you dare go against their warped ideology and expose the hypocrisy, the only difference between ISIS and the bbc is the bbc don’t do public beheadings for betraying the cause!
No doubt they all left with a nice little kitty of taxpayer booty though. My heart bleeds for them! They should at least do the right thing and get in touch with Whittingdale and tell him all that they know about the caliphate of media city.
The BBC, the Evil Empire, a very dangerous organisation. It is why I do not give them £145 of my hard earned money and why I do not have a television and do not watch their output on the computer either.
Everything revolves around the position of the ghastly Danny Cohen…..He is the catalyst of almost everything that is currently wrong with the BBC..
I have looked at the leaked info on the BBC Complaints Department, and I blame David and Claire Jordan.
At least the BBC are consistent! They protected the disgusting Savile and they are now protecting Muslim’s guilty of the same vile offenses.
I think it is fair to point out that (1) Mr Savile has not been convicted by (nor even tried in) a court of law, (2) a number of the accusations brought against him have been investigated and shown to be completely false, and (3) the people making money out of the demonisation of Mr Savile have been (a) no win no fee lawyers and (b) Mr Meirion Jones.
Please note that I am not pronouncing on Mr Savile’s guilt or innocence, but I am saying that we have not yet abolished the principle of “innocent until proven guilty”.
Nor have we, as far as I know, abolished the principal of “you can’t libel the dead”. So Mr S is fair game.
FWIW I have no doubt he was guilty. Neither have I any doubt that many of the accusations have been made up or exaggerated in the hope of climbing on the compensation bus or making fat fees.
Given the Press Gazette has a bit of a history with the BBC press office, a few of the comments are unsurprising.
Amazing they think playing the man rather than addressing the facts will do anything to distract from where their perverse priorities lie.
Also some wonderful precedent on demands that no speculation be engaged upon when it’s about the BBC, when the BBC has no problem doing so about others.
Hypocrites.
Meanwhile they doubtless have their work cut out with coverage to a slightly bigger, broader audience who may remember the key points rather than petty snarks…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3178557/BBC-reporter-tried-expose-Jimmy-Savile-scandal-claims-forced-job-colleagues-right-argument.html
The excellent Anna Raccoon blog has detailed the background to many of the Saville accusations in great depth. It also highlights the activities of Meirion Jones (former BBC and the subject of this press gazette article) amongst others and has some interesting concerns about his actions. Well worth a read.
True, Saville has not been convicted by a court but if memory serves a couple of in depth reports were pretty damning about his activities in the NHS and mental Heath facilities over many long years and you cannot put all of that down to money grabbers.
We await the BBC report into Savilles activities,long overdue ,with baited breath.
Of course Saville was never tried in a court of law, he was protected for decades by the people who ran the Institutions in which he carried out his vile activities, the BBC and perhaps even in some cases the police. In the face of such overwhelming evidence to use this argument is ridiculous. In fact, should he have been tried, we might now know for sure exactly who did turn a blind eye to what was happening, but now we will probably never know.