A former flagship BBC presenter has blasted the broadcaster’s reporting of the allegations made against Huw Edwards as a “bit distasteful. ”
Emily Maitlis, who worked for the corporation for 20 years and presented Newsnight before current host Victoria Derbyshire, criticised coverage by BBC journalists.
Speaking on Global’s podcast, The News Agents, she said: “If you know this stuff about a colleague, why isn’t your first duty to then go to HR or a senior manager…rather than turning it into a news story.”
It was claimed on Thursday that Newsnight host Victoria Derbyshire and other staff had already been looking into Edwards before the sexually explicit allegation was made public.
Huw Edwards’ friend, Andrew Billen, told Sky News he was surprised the BBC had decided to continue investigating Mr Edwards, 61, after it was revealed he was an inpatient in hospital.
Mr Billen said: “I was surprised… that Newsnight continued to investigate, especially given the fact we know that he was in hospital… but I understand it from the BBC’s point of view.
“If they zealously go after other public figures who committed some kind of wrongdoing, to be seen to be independent, they have to do the same with their own.”
Mr Billen added: “I’d have thought this could well have been a HR matter, rather than a matter for investigation.”
Former BBC journalist, Jon Sopel, who left the corporation last year and co-hosts The News Agents podcast with Emily Maitlis, tweeted: “A BBC news presenter using BBC resources to investigate another BBC news presenter.
“Does it get any weirder or madder?”
He said Mr Edwards was “very angry” and felt “very let down” by the coverage of the allegations levelled against him.
He urged the BBC to have a “long hard look in the mirror over the coverage and over the alacrity with which they have gone into someone’s private life.”
After Mr Edwards was publicly named by his wife Vicky Flind and police announced that there was no evidence of criminal wrongdoing, the paper released a statement saying it had “no plans to publish further allegations”.
Despite this, media figures are beginning to ask questions about the conduct of the paper and whether it should face any action.
Former Sun editor David Yelland wrote: “I wish [Huw Edwards] well. The Sun inflicted terror on Huw despite no evidence of any criminal offence.”
Former BBC presenter Robert Peston said: “I don’t know exactly what [Edwards] did, or why.
“The question, however, is whether – if it remains clear as the police say no crime was committed – there was a public interest in publishing the original story and in the subsequent coverage.”
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