Huw Edwards faces being off air for months after the BBC’s director general said an internal investigation into the suspended News at Ten presenter was likely to stretch into the autumn.
Tim Davie said the corporation would take its time with a fact-finding mission looking at claims against its best-known newsreader, after two police forces concluded Edwards had no criminal case to answer.
Edwards was taken off air earlier this month after the Sun published allegations he had paid £35,000 to a young person with a drug addiction “since they were 17 in return for sordid images”. The tabloid subsequently backtracked on its implication that Edwards may have committed a criminal offence by buying pictures when the individual was 17.
The young person issued a statement to the BBC claiming the key allegations were “rubbish”.
The presenter, one of the BBC’s highest earners, is believed to be receiving his full £435,000-a-year salary while suspended from the corporation. Even if Edwards is cleared of wrongdoing in the internal inquiry, many in the BBC newsroom doubt he will ever be able to return to his old job presenting the flagship evening news bulletin and election night coverage.
In addition, sources at BBC News told the Guardian that the corporation’s news division is continuing to investigate new lines of inquiry about Edwards’s habit of messaging younger members of staff. There have been no further public accusations against the presenter in recent days, although the Guardian has revealed how the parents who made the original accusation were offered tens of thousands of pounds for an as-yet-unaired interview with TalkTV, the Sun’s sister television station.
Davie told the House of Lords communications committee on Tuesday: “This has been a difficult affair where we have tried to calmly and reasonably navigate some difficult concerns around the allegations themselves, duty of care, privacy and legitimate public interest.
“We are in the process of looking at those facts, we are keen to receive any information, we want to understand anything that is out there. It’s difficult to give a precise time on that because you have to go through that diligently, assess the information, there are duty of care concerns within that. Because I’m not in control of all the variables that could take weeks or a couple of months or even longer, depending on what we get and managing the individuals concerned flawlessly.”
He said high-profile staff members have in their contract a clause about not bringing the BBC into disrepute and said there was a need to be aware of the dynamics between presenters and people in power: “You need to ensure that you’re very, very clear on what your expectations are culturally, as well as the policy.”
Edwards’s suspension overshadowed the pre-scheduled hearing, which also touched on wider issues about the BBC’s future and the licence fee. Last week the BBC’s annual report revealed the number of households paying the £169-a-year fee had fallen by 500,000 in the last year.
The government has briefed that it intends to press ahead with plans to replace the licence fee, paid by people who watch live television or use the iPlayer streaming service, with a new BBC funding model by 2027.
