LONDON, (Reuters) – BBC Director General George Entwistle resigned today, just two months into the job, after failing to get to grips with a child sex abuse scandal that has thrown the 90-year-old state-funded broadcaster into turmoil.
Entwistle has faced widespread criticism since a rival broadcaster carried charges last month that a former BBC star, the late Jimmy Savile, was one of Britain’s most prolific sex offenders.
Condemnation grew after the corporation made an embarrassing apology on Friday following an admission that the BBC’s flagship news programme aired a mistaken allegation that an ex-politician sexually abused children.
Speaking outside the BBC centre in London, he said he had taken the decision “in the light of the unacceptable journalistic standards of the Newsnight film broadcast on Friday 2nd November” because he was editor-in-chief.
“I have decided that the honourable thing to do is to step down from the post of director general,” he said.
