LONDON: The head of the BBC's governing body insisted Tuesday he had to give director-general George Entwistle a huge pay-off when he quit in the wake of paedophilia scandals engulfing the corporation.
BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten told lawmakers the £450,000 ($720,000, 560,000 euros) given to Entwistle after just 54 days in the job was "one hell of a lot of money", but there was no better option on the table.
The world's largest public broadcaster has been battered by claims that Jimmy Savile, one of its biggest stars, was among Britain's most prolific sex offenders -- as well as a television report wrongly accusing a politician of paedophilia.
There were bad-tempered exchanges as former Hong Kong governor Patten was grilled by parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee, a scrutiny panel of lawmakers.
Patten said Entwistle, who quit on November 10, had refused to resign if he received a pay-off of six months' salary, but agreed to go if he was given 12 months.
But Patten insisted that Entwistle was "a decent man who was overwhelmed by a very difficult job" and said he would not join in the "general trashing" of the character of a man who spent most of his career at the BBC.
"What's happened is a small tragedy which has been made rather larger by money," he said.
At one point in the crisis, Entwistle had asked Patten: "Are you urging me to go?" and got the reply: "We're not urging you to go but we're not urging you to stay", Patten revealed.
He said the trust did not have sufficient grounds to sack Entwistle and therefore had no choice but to accept his terms.
Otherwise, Patten added, the crisis would have stretched on and the BBC would have found itself "with a constructive dismissal and probably an unfair dismissal on top of that," which would have been even more expensive.
"It was better than any alternative course of action," he said.
On Thursday the BBC appointed Royal Opera House boss Tony Hall, its former news chief, as its new director-general to an almost universally warm reception. He is expected to start work in March.
An inquiry into the dropping of a report on Savile's abuse by the BBC's flagship current affairs programme Newsnight is due to report by the New Year.
A second independent probe is looking into the BBC's practices during the more than 20 years Savile spent at the corporation.
Patten said the costs, "however much they are", would be met from the licence fee, the compulsory £145.50-per-household annual levy.
Acting BBC director-general Tim Davie said around 40 people were interviewed for the Newsnight review, with the legal costs reaching £200,000 so far. There is a cap of £50,000 per person.
Patten admitted that the BBC had work to do to restore trust in its output and journalism, but insisted it remained superior to its counterparts elsewhere in the world.
"Trust in the BBC has taken a knock," he said. "We have shot ourselves in the foot. We have to rebuild that trust."
He added: "Anybody who rubbishes the BBC should be forced to watch Italian or French or American TV for a week or so."
Meanwhile Britain's top police officer Bernard Hogan-Howe said the investigation into Savile's abuse had cost around £2 million so far, and involves around 450 potential victims.
And police said they were now publicly acknowledging that the late Cyril Smith, a prominent 30-stone (190-kilogramme) lawmaker who died two years ago, had physically and sexually abused young boys in care homes in the 1960s.
-AFP/ac
BBC Trust chief defends huge director-general payout
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BBC Trust chief defends huge director-general payout
