After claims surfaced that a BBC broadcaster had paid a minor thousands of pounds for sexually explicit images, the BBC said on Sunday that it had suspended a male employee.
Lucy Frazer, the UK culture minister, said yesterday that she had spoken with BBC Director General Tim Davie about the “deeply concerning” claims, and that Davie had assured her that the BBC is “investigating swiftly and sensitively.”
The mother told The Sun, which originally published the story, that an anonymous BBC presenter paid her child more than £35,000 ($45,000) over the course of three years for the photographs. After the family of the young person, who was supposed to be 17 when the payments began, protested to the BBC in May, the presenter in issue allegedly appeared on broadcast for a month.
“New allegations were put to us on Thursday of a different nature and in addition to our own enquiries we have also been in touch with external authorities, in line with our protocols. This is a complex and fast moving set of circumstances and the BBC is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts in order to properly inform appropriate next steps,” the BBC added.
The BBC has “robust internal processes in place to proactively deal with such allegations,” as it has stated that it takes “any allegations seriously.”
Davie “wholly condemns the unsubstantiated rumours being made on the internet about some of our presenting talent,” he wrote in an email to workers that was then posted on the BBC’s website.
Some BBC broadcasters have gone to social media after the claims were published in The Sun to distance themselves from the network.
The British broadcaster has been criticised for its treatment of the claim, and its chairman resigned in April after an inquiry showed he failed to declare a loan to ex-prime minister Boris Johnson.
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