Email Shows Government Pressuring BBC Chief To Handle Huw Edwards Crisis
Evening Standard/Getty Images
The government faces allegations of meddling with the BBC’s independence by pressuring its handling of the crisis surrounding veteran presenter Huw Edwards.
In July The Sun published allegations accusing Edwards of paying a teenager for sexual images. An exclusive report by Deadline, however, reveals that within hours, Robert Specterman-Green, the director of media for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS), emailed BBC chief of staff Phil Harrold, emphasising the government’s expectation for the BBC to “look into this with urgency.”
In the email, acquired by Freedom of Information request, Specterman-Green wrote: “While recognising this is a matter for the BBC to manage, I wanted to underline, on behalf of DCMS, our expectation that the BBC looks into this with urgency and proactively takes all necessary and appropriate steps.”
Specterman-Green’s email to the BBC. (Screengrab via Deadline)
Soon after Specterman-Green’s email, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer issued a public statement that she’d spoken to BBC director general Tim Davie about the “deeply concerning allegations.” Frazer’s statement, Specterman-Green’s email and subsequent communications between DCMS and BBC officials indicated a keen interest from the government in the matter. One day after the back and forth, Edwards was suspended.
Although the BBC is a publicly-funded broadcaster, the BBC board is responsible for independently addressing such internal issues, not government ministers, so the correspondence revealed by Deadline has raised alarms.
An anonymously quoted senior Tory politician commented to Deadline on the emails, dismissing the interference as “naivety” and not “malign.”
“There is a misplaced view among politicians who think that when the BBC is under fire like this, that somehow they have to get involved straight away,” the Tory said. “I don’t think it was done with malign intent but more a sort of naivety on the part of the government; not understanding their role and the relationship between them and the BBC.”
In defence, a spokesperson from the DCMS told Deadline the department had a right to remind the BBC of its duties while affirming the broadcaster remain “operationally independent of the government.”
Meanwhile, five months into his suspension, Edwards’ future remains uncertain and he is not expected to return to news teams at the BBC.
