The British Broadcasting Corporation hit a major crisis as its director-general George Entwistle resigned less than two months after taking charge over a controversial Newsnight report that wrongly implicated a senior Conservative Party politician from the Thatcher era in a child abuse scandal.
“In the light of the fact that the director-general is also editor-in-chief and ultimately responsible for all content, and in the light of the unacceptable journalistic standards of the Newsnight film broadcast on Friday, November 2, I have decided the honourable thing to do is to step down,” Mr Entwistle said in a surprise announcement late Saturday night.
Lord Chris Patten, chairman of the BBC Trust, said Mr Entwistle had been forced to resign because of “shoddy journalism”.