BBC’s Huw Edwards Review Reveals ‘Shortcomings’ in Complaints Process as Broadcaster Apologizes

variety.com:

Naman Ramachandran A BBC report into the investigation of the Huw Edwards scandal has identified shortcomings in the corporation’s process.

A review of the BBC’s non-editorial complaints process was commissioned last year in the wake of the scandal. It was led by BBC Group COO Leigh Tavaziva and Deloitte, under the direction of Simon Cuerden.

The report was published on Tuesday. Tavaziva said: “Although our existing processes and systems are, on the whole, working effectively, this review shows that we need to join them up better to ensure no matter how a non-editorial complaint comes into the BBC it is escalated swiftly, when needed, and dealt with by the right people. “Where the review identifies process improvements we accept those in full, and we are delivering on an action plan with a number of enhancements already in place. “The report identifies specific process shortcomings in the presenter case.

The initial complaint in this case was not escalated quickly enough to senior management and we have apologized to the complainant for this.” The news broke in early July, 2023, that a top BBC presenter was facing allegations of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photographs, later revealed to be Edwards.