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Savile and the BBC - whistleblowers must be protected

The BBC has two problems arising out of the Savile affair.  The first is the possibility that the BBC contains a paedophile ring:

"Lawyers representing some of the male and female victims, some of whom were as young as eight when the abuse occurred, said their clients had indicated an organised paedophile ring involving other celebrities had existed at the BBC during the height of Savile's fame in the 1970s and 80s." Reuters Report.

 The problem of the paedophile ring is a matter for the police.  Paedophiles frequently operate in groups and it would be strange if there were not a group of perverts at the BBC.  It would not surprise me if there are senior paedophiles who are using the investigation of the withdrawal of the Newsnight article about Savile as a diversion from their own direct culpability.

The second problem is the broader issue of how the BBC treats whistle blowers.  The treatment of whistle blowers is a serious issue for British society.

The BBC is on record for treating whistleblowers ruthlessly, whether the whistle blowing is about  illegal employment practices or Andrew Gilligan's reporting about dodgy dossiers.

Examples of how the rest of British industry treats whistleblowers are legion.  The NHS is, perhaps, the worst of the big employers:

'The senior consultant who warned of "serious failings" at the Great Ormond Street Hospital clinic which sent Baby P home to die is being "hounded out,"' (Daily Telegraph) and was sacked but re-instated after BMA protests.

An NHS Trust attempted to dismiss a whistleblowing consultant who had been on secondment in the USA for two years on the pretext that he was losing the confidence of his staff. See: Consultant thanks BMA

 Low standards at the NHS run Broadmoor Hospital had been exposed by a whistleblower who was then forced to resign, although she did win a case for constructive dismissal (Bucks Free Press)

 The big banks have treated whistleblowers disgracefully:

 Paul Moore, head of Risk at HBOS was sacked for pointing out that the bank was overlending in 2004. (BBC Article)

 RBS Non-executive directors, who are supposed to keep the bank operating within the law and the bounds of decency were threatened with dismissal for raising concerns about the management of the bank. (The Week article.)

 In all of these cases we see senior staff protecting themselves by persecuting whistle blowers.  Most of the cases involve criminal activity.  Simply compensating the whistleblower is not sufficient, the senior staff must be dismissed and banned from ever being directors or government officials again if it can be shown that they indulged in the persecution of a whistleblower who is exposing a risk to life or regulatory or criminal failure in an organisation.

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