BBC bosses have pulled plug on politically sensitive reports into close ties between leading politicians & Russia. John Sweeney, a ex-BBC investigative reporter, turned whistleblower says in a complaint against BBC with Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog.
thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-wh…
thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-wh…
Investigations into Labour’s Lord Mandelson, former Tory cabinet minister John Whittingdale, Brexit funder Arron Banks, oligarch Roman Abramovich and the far-right activist Tommy Robinson were all dropped. thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-wh…
Reports into “the pro-Russian sympathies of Labour spin doctor Seumas Milne” were never even commissioned by BBC editors as were concerns about Boris Johnson’s links with Russian oligarchs. thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-wh…
Sweeney accuses James Harding, the former BBC head of news, of making a “direct intervention” to stop the broadcast. It detailed how in 2013 Mandelson joined the board of Sistema, a Russian company that Sweeney’s reporting showed had historic connections to organised crime.
2014 Milne, was in Sochi where he met Putin. Writing to Ofcom’s chief executive, Sweeney says he worked on a Newsnight investigation of Mandelson in 2017 which forced him to change his Lords register to show a £400K shareholding in Putin firm worth about £400,000. Never broadcast
Sweeney accuses James Harding, the former BBC head of news, of making a “direct intervention” to stop the broadcast. It detailed how in 2013 Mandelson joined the board of Sistema, a Russian company that Sweeney’s reporting showed had historic connections to organised crime.
The programme asked if Mandelson, in his role on the company’s audit and risk committee, should have examined a £bn deal made before he joined. Sweeney’s sources, including a former MI6 officer, suggested deal was a bribe for the then Russian president Dimitri Medvedev.
In his letter to Ofcom, Sweeney also claims a Newsnight investigation into the connections between John Whittingdale, the former culture secretary, and Dmytro Firtash, the pro-Kremlin oligarch, had been shelved. Whittingdale made five trips as a backbencher to Ukraine.
These were funded by the British Ukrainian Society, which was set up by Firtash. In 2016 Whittingdale’s former lover Stephanie Hudson, a topless model, said he had discussed Firtash with her.
Whittingdale’s spokesman said: “John has never received any money or any other financial benefits from Dmytro Firtash or his associates.” Sweeney refers to investigations that he did not work on, including a Panorama programme on Abramovich and a BBC News investigation of Banks.
He left the BBC last year after 17 years amid controversy over his unbroadcast film Robinson. One of Robinson’s aides secretly made a rival “documentary” and embarrassed him by showing footage of the reporter drinking on “expenses”. He says he paid for all drinks himself.
Sweeney writes: “BBC management, led by director-general Tony Hall, has become so risk-averse in the face of threats from the far-right and the Russian state and its proxies that due impartiality is being undermined and investigative journalism is being endangered.”
“BBC demands high standards from journalists expecting them to behave with professionalism. Failing to do so compromises investigative journalism. “Furthermore, investigative journalism can take years. If something has not yet been broadcast does not mean investigation is over”
Sweeney responded: “True, the BBC has brilliant journalists who do great stuff, but that doesn’t mean that an exhausted and timid management doesn’t kill stories, especially about Russian influence on British politics up to and including the prime minister.
High standards should rule out favouritism for friends — Peter Mandelson, Evgeny Lebedev, Seumas Milne — in high places. I hope Ofcom will address these issues.”thetimes.co.uk/article/bbc-wh…
@threadreaderapp Unroll BBC bosses accused of pulling the plug on politically sensitive reports into close links between politicians and Russia. John Sweeney, ex BBC investigative reporter, turned whistleblower+filed a complaint against BBC with Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog.
