EMAILS between UK Government officials and the BBC about presenter Huw Edwards have been revealed – with a senior Conservative lawmaker admitting they show UK Government "naivety".
Welsh journalist Edwards, who had been at the helm of significant political and royal events for the corporation, was named in July as the suspended BBC presenter at the centre of allegations about payments to a young person for explicit images.
The UK Government has been accused of “not understanding their role and the relationship between them and the BBC”, while the Government has defended the intervention stating it is "entitled to remind the BBC of its duty to establish the facts", according to a report in Hollywood news site Deadline.
The publication revealed the correspondence – obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request – between the director of media for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and BBC chief of staff Phil Harrold on Saturday, July 8, setting out the Government’s expectations of an investigation.
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The email was sent on the same morning The Sun newspaper published the allegations against Edwards.
The BBC – which is editorially and operationally independent of the Government – is currently looking at its protocols and procedures after concerns were raised by the young person’s family in the newspaper after they suspended the BBC presenter, who was later revealed to be Edwards.
In one email, Specterman-Green wrote: “While recognising this is a matter for the BBC to manage, I wanted to underline, on behalf of DCMS, our expectation that the BBC looks into this with urgency and proactively takes all necessary and appropriate steps.”
The email was sent before the BBC board had gathered over Zoom for an emergency meeting to discuss the allegations.
Harrold replied that the broadcaster was considering the matter “very seriously”.
On the following day, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer (above) released a statement which said she had spoken to BBC director-general Tim Davie about the “deeply concerning allegations".
She added that the broadcaster must be “given the space” to conduct its inquiries in the media frenzy which surrounded the scandal.
Additional emails between the DCMS and BBC further reveal Frazer had arranged at least two more phone calls with Davie and BBC acting chair Elan Closs Stephens in the following days.
Deadline reported that a senior Conservative lawmaker called the Government's view on its involvement as “misplaced” and said the DCMS had “a sort of naivety” when it came to its role in BBC procedures.
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The Tory said: “There is a misplaced view among politicians who think that when the BBC is under fire like this, that somehow they have to get involved straight away.
“I don’t think it was done with malign intent but more a sort of naivety on the part of the government; not understanding their role and the relationship between them and the BBC.”
Baroness Stowell, chair of the influential Lords Communications and Digital Committee, previously called the intervention “not standard”.
Stowell questioned Frazer about her intervention during a hearing in September.
Frazer said: “That was a very serious issue and it was important that the government made its views known.”
A DCMS spokesperson said: "The BBC is operationally independent of the government, and this was made clear in all our conversations with the broadcaster. At no point did officials or ministers instruct the BBC to investigate this matter.
"As a publicly funded organisation, the government is entitled to remind the BBC of its duty to establish the facts and to follow due process."
The BBC said: “The simple fact is that the BBC was already investigating; as the facts show, it didn’t need prompting to do so by the government.”
It was revealed in July that Edwards was being treated in hospital amid "serious mental health issues".
Edwards and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment from Deadline.
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