Exactly 23 minutes after receiving fresh information from Mazher Mahmood and his lawyers on Monday night, senior BBC executives decided to delay a planned documentary exposing the former News of the World reporter and condemning his behaviour for the second time.
With allegations against one of the best-known journalists working for Rupert Murdoch as well as the Metropolitan police and pressure from the attorney general to delay the report, much more was at stake than making sure Mahmood’s legal queries were met.
After years marked by tension following the catastrophic decision to drop a Newsnight investigation into abuse by Jimmy Savile, the Panorama report – made by the same producer, Meirion Jones – was in many ways the first big test of its news and current affairs department under director general Tony Hall. The BBC’s reputation for accuracy but, perhaps more importantly, fearless journalism would be hurt by any mistake or signs of weakness.
On top of all this, the decision to delay the show came as Panorama itself, the jewel in the crown of BBC current affairs, faced uncertainty over its future as part of the core BBC.
With police investigating Mahmood on suspicion of perverting the course of justice after the trial of Tulisa Contostavlos collapsed in July, time was running out. Although the police have not yet filed any report on the case to prosecutors, a charge would make any broadcast potentially liable for contempt.
Yet when James Harding, the director of news and current affairs, arrived back from a trip to California on Monday afternoon to make the final decision, tension was running high. Following two unsuccessful legal appeals by Mahmood, who denies that his lawyers came up with new information just 90 minutes before transmission, the entire BBC team agreed that care needed to be taken before broadcast.
“This was about Britain’s most irresponsible journalist and we had to be ultra responsible,” said someone closely involved in the programme, “so we decided we would hold the programme for a day or two”.
As the fresh evidence involved John Bryan, Panorama’s programme producers had to track down the Texan businessman whose intimate photos with Sarah Ferguson embarrassed the then Duchess of York in the 1990s, to interview him again. Fortunately, he was relatively nearby, visiting business concerns in Brussels.
The programme, watched by 3 million people on Wednesday night, won plaudits from within and outside the BBC. Channel controller Charlotte Moore sent herograms to the team, and the reaction on Twitter was enthusiastic.
Although few insiders would talk on the record about the programme and the BBC, Jones paid tribute to the handling of the situation by editor Ceri Thomas, an adviser to Newsnight editor Peter Rippon during the Pollard inquiry into the Savile affair, and, especially, Harding.
Harding spoke at a pre-arranged meeting of journalists at the Society of Editors where he praised the not-yet-aired programme, a decision that “took some balls”, according to Jones, one of the few involved to say anything on the record. In all, the senior editors got “full marks”, he said.
“This was not a Savile-type situation,” said one of the people involved. “The decisions were made on journalistic grounds with proper caution taken.” Another journalist said: “This was a textbook model to keep everything together. All the way up to Tony Hall.”
Given that Hall’s predecessor, George Entwistle, lost his job over what was considered the botched handling of the Savile report, leading to “chaos and confusion” and continued bitterness, the high-profile programme should mark renewed vigour and confidence among its producers.
So it may appear somewhat surprising to learn that John Sweeney, along with his three co-presenters, all face redundancy as part of the BBC’s cost-cutting programme, which aims to get rid of 500 jobs. Staff at Panorama are worried about plans to scale back the BBC’s investigative journalism and feature more “analysis”. One editor and two deputies have departed amid plans to bring in well-known presenters such as Fiona Bruce.
What’s more, Panorama itself, the world’s longest-running current affairs TV programme, is earmarked for a proposed new commercial division at the BBC that would be left to compete with other independent producers. The plans have left many in current affairs nonplussed. “Panorama may be nothing but a headache for the DG,” said one insider, “but how does it stop being a headache if freelancers are making it?”
Panorama has a history of both brilliant and embarrassing reports for the BBC. In one, on the day Hall started as DG, Sweeney filmed in North Korea under circumstances that led the BBC to apologise to the LSE. Then there was its programme in October 2012 about how the BBC botched the Savile story.
“I don’t even understand how you can privatise Panorama, and I hope against hope that this makes them realise it’s not feasible,” said someone close to the programme. “But, after all this time at the BBC, you can never tell.”
When Fake Sheikh: Exposed eventually aired, the production team went to the Ship, a pub near Broadcasting House. The Ship isn’t a usual BBC watering hole but it provided the setting for an “odd impromptu party”, according to someone there, when two of the “fake sheikh’s” alleged victims, John Alford and John Bryan, turned up. Many close to the BBC hope the celebration marked a new beginning rather than a wake.
