Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw questions BBC DG on Savile

Exeter's MP Ben Bradshaw today took part in the questioning of the new BBC Director General, George Entwistle, about the BBC's handling of the Savile revelations. Mr Bradshaw, a former BBC reporter, has recently joined the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons and today's session was very high profile.

  Ben Bradshaw asked the DG whether in the light of the Panorama special shown last night he agreed that the decision to drop the 2011 Newsnight documentary about Savile's activities was  'a catastrophic mistake' and why it had taken him three weeks to decide that the explanation given by its Editor Peter Rippon was 'incomplete'. Mr Entwistle replied that it became obvious to him after reading Peter Rippon’s blog that there had been a significant difference of opinion between the journalists working on the programme and that he then set in train further investigation into the matter. He told the committee that he felt after watching Panorama that the Newsnight documentary should have been shown.

  Asked by Mr Bradshaw why he did not speak to the Editor or journalists concerned himself, the DG said he wanted to 'stand apart' from the process and ask others to collect the facts, in order to pass them on to the independent external review he had set up into the Newsnight decision. Ben Bradshaw pressed him on the fact that he claimed not to have known about the Newsnight dispute earlier, and on whether the BBC's revised account was now accurate. The DG stood by his claim and said that 'to the best of my knowledge' the account is now accurate.

  The Committee were relentless in their questions and it was a testing time for the newly appointed Director General, who finds himself under a lot of pressure.