(London) BBC Director General Tim Davie on Wednesday defended the work carried out within the public broadcasting group at the time of comedian Russell Brand’s departure from public radio in 2008.
Accused of rape and sexual assault by four women in the media and targeted by a report to the police for sexual assault in 2003, Russell Brand hosted a program on the BBC for two years, before he resigned in 2008 after the broadcast of a phone call deemed obscene, generating complaints by the thousands.
“Rigorous work” was carried out then, assured Tim Davie, who was at the time director of audio within the public audiovisual group, during a conference at the Television Society (RTS) in Cambridge.
“There will always be questions” outstanding, he said, when asked about possible regrets about what was done at the time.
“We are having, I believe, deep discussions, and we have been doing this for years” to ensure there is no abuse of power, he said.
Faced with the “very serious” accusations against Russell Brand, he warned against being overconfident about the approach to take.
“This is not a problem that can be dismissed as just being old, to be honest,” he said, “there is an important, healthy dialogue that needs to happen around these deep power imbalances.” .
The BBC boss stressed that there have been “deep problems with misogyny and abuse of power” and that we need to be “really vigilant, not accept them and create a culture where we can have confidence” that reports are “treated very seriously”.
After the allegations against Russell Brand came to light over the weekend, the BBC, Channel 4 and a production company, which also employed him, announced internal investigations.
At the same event on Wednesday, Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon hit out at how “terrible behavior” had been tolerated in the sector.
