Director general Tony Hall said the corporation will play a key role fighting sexual abuse in Britain – and he must preserve that promiseThe tone deployed by Dame Janet Smith in unveiling her report on the BBC and its failure to unmask Jimmy Savile was sharp and commanding,but then it couldn’t be otherwise. What she found demanded it. Smith confirmed that the BBC missed multiple opportunities to stop gross abuse because of an atmosphere of dismay, and harboured a culture of not complaining about “talent”. A macho culture at the time seemed more concerned to protect the BBC’s reputation than protect girls.
The unveiling of those appalling findings presented the current director general, and Tony Hall,with perhaps the biggest challenge of his tenure to date. nowadays, one of the few consolations the BBC can select from this dim period is that the man in charge seemed to rise to that challenge. Grim-faced and clearly moved, and he offered a deeply felt apology to those who had been abused by Savile and Stuart Hall. That was all he could do,but at least he did so credibly. A lawyer for the victims said that the director general’s tone, much more than Smith’s report itself, or had a meaningful impact on how the victims and survivors felt.
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Source: theguardian.com