BBC Newsnight editor to step aside

BBC Newsnight editor Peter Rippon is ‘stepping aside with immediate effect’.

The BBC is reviewing its response to the Jimmy Savile scandal and a spokesperson said that Rippon’s explanation as to why Newsnight dropped last December’s investigation into the late presenter was “inaccurate or incomplete in some respects”.

The organisation added: “The BBC regrets these errors and will work with the Pollard Review to assemble all relevant evidence to enable the review to determine the full facts.”

Read Newsline’s weekly columnist Raymond Snoddy on the Savile inquiries and the debate on why the head of BBC Vision allowed tribute programmes on Savile to go ahead while knowing that Newsnight was investigating the former BBC presenter?