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Call for "radical overhaul" of BBC after chief quits

Other News Materials 11 November 2012 15:59 (UTC +04:00)

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten on Sunday called for a "thorough, radical, structural overhaul" of the broadcaster a day after its director general resigned, dpa reported.

George Entwistle resigned late Saturday after current affairs programme Newsnight wrongly accused a former politician of sexually abusing boys in the 1970s and 1980s.

Entwistle said the report should never have been broadcast. He told Radio 4 Today that he had not known in advance that the report, shown on November 2, was being aired.

On Saturday, Entwistle said he was doing the "honourable thing" by stepping down. "The wholly exceptional events of the past few weeks have led me to conclude that the BBC should appoint a new leader."

The scandal-hit BBC has also been accused of having known that late presenter Jimmy Savile was sexually abusing children and women and had failed to act.

Savile is alleged to have abused more than 300 children and young women over four decades while working for the BBC. He died a year ago at the age of 84.

Entwistle, who took up his job as the head of the world's largest public broadcasting organization just two months ago, was under fire over the Savile row, and in particular over a decision by the BBC not to broadcast a TV documentary on Savile's misdemeanours last year. Entwistle was head of BBC television at the time.

Lord Patten said: "I think that I now have to make sure that, in the interests of the licence fee payer and the audience, that the BBC has a grip, that we get ourselves back onto the road."

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