BBC ordered to investigate presenter accused of child pornography

British public broadcasting in turmoil. The UK government on Sunday July 9 ordered the BBC to investigate one of its presenters, accused in the press by a mother of having paid her child to send him pornographic photos.

The tabloid The Sun published the testimony of this mother of a family on Friday evening, accusing a star presenter of the BBC, without naming him, of having given, in exchange for pornographic photos, several tens of thousands of pounds to her then 17-year-old child . The article does not specify whether the teenager is a girl or a boy.

“A procedure in place”

According to the daily, the family contacted the BBC to inform them of the situation, but the presenter remained on the air for several more weeks. These allegations, which are making headlines in the British media“need to be investigated urgently and with sensitivity,” said the Ministry of Culture in charge of the media in a statement on Sunday. The minister, Lucy Frazer, spoke in the process with the director general of the BBC, Tim Davie. “He assured me that the BBC was investigating quickly and sensitively”she wrote on Twitter.

The BBC had assured on Friday “treat all accusations very seriously”, and have “a procedure in place to deal with them proactively”. But she did not confirm that the presenter in question, who is no longer on the air, had been formally suspended. The public audiovisual group, whose president had to resign in April in a case of conflicts of interest and whose impartiality is regularly questioned, is the subject of virulent criticism on its management of the case.