BBC boss Tim Davie says personal error to blame for Alan Dershowitz interview

BBC director-general Tim Davie (Andrew Milligan/PA)
PA Archive
Daniel Keane12 January 2022

BBC director-general Tim Davie has said personal error led to the broadcaster’s interview with Jeffrey Epstein’s former lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

The corporation sparked controversy last month after opting to give a platform to the US lawyer, who once represented Epstein, in the wake of the conviction of the financier’s co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

Shortly after the verdict was announced, the interview was broadcast on BBC World News and the BBC News Channel. Mr Dershowitz was introduced as a “constitutional lawyer”, with his connection to Epstein not made clear to viewers.

The BBC later said the interview had not met its editorial standards, admitting Mr Dershowitz was not “a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst”.

Mr Dershowitz has previously been accused of sexual abuse by Virginia Giuffre, who is also one of Mr Epstein’s accusers. He denies the allegation.

Appearing in front of the House of Lords communications and digital committee on Tuesday, Mr Davie said of the interview: “We looked at what happened but there was no investigation.

“We admitted immediately it was in breach of our editorial guidelines and straight away said it was a mistake.

“Then you get to why it was a mistake. You can argue a little bit in terms of the amount of seniority and cover we had during Christmas, during Covid.”

But he added: “Not everything gets centralised. That is just standard business of the day in some ways. It may be that the oversight of the story, you get a bit more oversight of what the guests are bringing forward.

“This was simply about the amount of due diligence that was done by the planner and the knowledge level of the person who was putting the person on air.”

Mr Dershowitz used his air time to denigrate Ms Giuffre’s claims against himself.

Maxwell, 60, was convicted on five out of six charges late last month, which included luring young girls to massage rooms for the disgraced financier Epstein to abuse.

Epstein, 66, was found dead in his cell at a Manhattan federal jail in August 2019 while he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. The death was ruled to be a suicide.

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