The Power of the Paedos - another high profile case hits the 'never happened' wall?

[Jan Klimkowski]

Today's diversionary target is the BBC, who appear to have well and truly fucked up, by not performing the journalistic due diligence undertaken by other media organisations such as Channel 4.

First, Newsnight dropped a film containing victim testimony of Jimmy Savile's child abuse.

Then, perhaps anxious to make amends, Newsnight broadcast a film which McAlpine claims implicitly identified him as the "high ranking Tory paedophile" accuased by a particular victim, Steve Messham.

However, Newsnight didn't contact McAlpine for a right of reply prior to broadcast because he was not named in the film

Lord McAlpine given no right of reply on Newsnight film about abuse claims

Newsnight chose not to contact peer ahead of film that appears to have wrongly accused a 'leading politician of Thatcher years'

Dan Sabbagh

guardian.co.uk, Friday 9 November 2012 17.27 GMT

Newsnight chose not to contact Lord McAlpine ahead of broadcasting a film that appears to have wrongly accused a "leading politician of the Thatcher years" widely understood to be the former Conservative party treasurer of being involved in the sexual abuse of a former child resident of a care home in North Wales.

Executives and journalists involved with the BBC2 programme, fronted by Jeremy Paxman and Kirsty Wark, concluded that there was no need to contact the peer before broadcasting the anonymised accusations on Friday last week because Newsnight had no intention of naming him, according to BBC sources.

Had Newsnight done so, they might have heard Lord McAlpine's denials. Another journalist, Michael Crick, from Channel 4 News, spoke to the peer twice on Friday 2 November and was told that McAlpine had only once been to Wrexham, the town where the abuse was alleged to have taken place.

The Newsnight film, broadcast that evening, was based on an interview with Steve Messham, a victim of sexual abuse in care homes in North Wales in the 1970s. Newsnight chose not to name the politician but Gavin Esler introduced the programme by saying "this man says a leading Conservative from the time was one of his abusers".

The name of Lord McAlpine, who now lives in Italy, swiftly began circulating on the internet.

Shortly after, Messham made a statement of apology, saying there was a case of mistaken identity: "I want to offer my sincere and humble apologies to him and his family. After seeing a picture in the past hour of the individual concerned, this not the person I identified by photograph presented to me by the police in the early 1990s, who told me the man in the photograph was Lord McAlpine."

This morning McAlpine finally broke his long silence to say that reports linking him to North Wales child abuse are "wholly false and seriously defamatory" and to also say that he had only been to Wrexham on one occasion.

Giving those criticised a right of reply is a staple of journalism and required by broadcasting regulations. Ofcom's broadcasting code, which regulates the BBC when it comes to fairness and privacy, says that if a programme "alleges wrongdoing or incompetence or makes other significant allegations [against an individual], those concerned should normally be given an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond".

Now the very rich McAlpine is threatening to sue:

The BBC and several dozen Twitter users face the prospect of legal action after Lord McAlpine indicated that he could sue for libel over what he described as "wholly false and seriously defamatory" reports linking him to north Wales child abuse allegations.

The Conservative peer issued a statement on Friday after days of frenzied speculation in the wake of a BBC Newsnight report last Friday.

McAlpine has reportedly instructed Sir Edward Garnier QC, the Conservative MP and former solicitor general, to act on his behalf in any potential libel claim.

Actually, the story is more complicated.

The victim, Steve Messham, has apologised to McAlpine, but his apology contains the following very interesting information:

Mr Messham offered "sincere and humble apologies" to the peer and his family.

In a statement on Friday evening, Mr Messham said: "After seeing a picture in the past hour of the individual concerned, this [is] not the person I identified by photograph presented to me by the police in the early 1990s, who told me the man in the photograph was Lord McAlpine."

So, at face value, we have a journalistic failure by the BBC in not showing Steve Messham a photo of McAlpine. However, we also have the mystery of whose photograph Messham was shown in the early 1990s by the police.

We also have the fact that it was The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph who named McAlpine as innocent of the charges of child abuse in this morning's editions.

Later in the day, McAlpine and his lawyers came out fighting.

Once again, BBC Newsnight did not name McAlpine. But the BBC is now the target of mass condemnation.

Of course there are many of us who have seen evidence suggesting the high ranking Thatcher minister involved in the paedophile ring was someone else altogether.