The British Broadcasting Corp. said the editor of its “Newsnight” program was stepping aside, hours before another of its shows, “Panorama,” claimed that he was pressured to cancel a segment on child abuse by TV star Jimmy Savile.
Peter Rippon’s move takes place with immediate effect while the broadcaster investigates how executives handled the scandal, the BBC said in a statement yesterday. Rippon’s explanation on his blog for dropping the program was “inaccurate or incomplete in some respects,” it said.
“Panorama” said that BBC Director General George Entwistle knew about the Savile segment before it was canceled, the broadcaster said yesterday. “Panorama” will also report that “Newsnight” journalist Liz MacKean wrote to a friend that Rippon was feeling under pressure and he said he couldn’t “go to the wall on this one” if “the bosses aren’t happy.”
Savile, who was knighted for charity work in 1990, has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of children over the 30 years he worked at the broadcaster.