BBC braced for Savile investigation
Newsnight’s editor said he could not screen a film investigating the allegations surrounding Sir Jimmy Savile “if the bosses aren’t happy”, a Panorama programme is set to claim.
The corporation is bracing itself for Monday evening’s screening, in which journalists who worked on the Newsnight film challenge the official account of why Peter Rippon chose not to broadcast it.
Mr Rippon this evening has denied rumours that he has resigned as Newsnight’s editor, after the Daily Mail’s front page reported that he had quit.
But he will come under more pressure when on the programme two journalists are expected to dispute the corporation’s assertion that Newsnight was investigating Surrey Police, and did not broadcast it after no wrongdoing was found. Instead the journalists claim they were probing the central allegation that Mr Savile was a paedophile.