1. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
Jimmy Savile:How the media reported the abuse allegations
Did they breach codes and conventions in both broadcasting journalism and the law?
Task 1- Introduction
During his lifetime Jimmy Savile born 31 October 1926 – 29 October 2011 has always captured the
limelight especially in the 1960s and 1970s when he first became the main stream presenter quickly
raising his profile through the BBC corporation with shows such “Jim'll Fix It, and was the first and
last presenter of the long-running BBC music chart show Top of the Pops “according to Wikipedia
.During his lifetime he raised an estimated £40 million for charities, with made his house hold name
and a national treasure.But there was much darker side to Jimmy Savile that would be revealed
through series of allegations and tvprograms to unearth the sexual predator that Jimmy Savilewas,
withevidence accounts from those he abused as well as people who knew jimmy Savile. However
this would only soon be discovered one year after death which could bring to question whether
could you take for value the evidence from those he abused because it was a long time when these
allegations happened.
Often within the media printing industry itself people who come forward to tell their story to the
newspapers only do it for the money with is incentive from newspapers to get the latest news which
unethical because in most cases they print stories without checking the reliability of the story
beforehand. This method can seem costly due to the fact newspapers are interested with sales
rather than accuracy which lead to serious celebrities to sue for libel which means written
documentation which is printing false lies and have significant impact on their reputation. Whereas
defamation is a verbal accusation of false evidence which could mean i.etv has presented such
strong stories to damage a celebrity reputation, some of the Savile family could argue the way this
scandal has played out is defamation as it been year since he has died and that Jimmy cantexactly
defend or refute the claims which is unfair as his celebrity status and the family name has been
tarnished which can caused a lot of abuse to them which is only based on allegations. But it has
been proven with wide range of evidence from various records and resources that there is sufficient
data to prove JimmySavile had claim made against him when he was alive and this was the nail in the
coffin. However during the early days within the investigation the journalists had to tread carefully
not only to earn the trust of victims but also they would be making serious accusations against one
of the most treasured and loved celebrity Jimmy Savile.
Research The Early Accusations :LouixTherox meets Jimmy Savile
As previously mentioned within the introductory paragraph there was
accusations of child sex abuse being reported against Savile when he was
alive which lead to nothing ever to come in criminal courts ore proceedings
due to the fact Savile reputationwas still strong and had friends in high
places partly due the contacts he established over the years when raising his
profile through hospitals and charities events he participated and organized.
However one documentary maker LouixTherox did confront Jimmy Savile in
the documentary called “When Louis Met…” according to Wikipedia was
originally aired 2000 to 2002 where Louix meets famous British celebrities and discusses their lives
and how they worked their way up .In this particular episode LouixTherox meets his childhood
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2. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
hero Jimmy Savile which is significant and ironic because it shows the power and influence he had
over minors which also when looking into more detail when journalist gathered evidence in
ITVexposure documentary it shows a much darker and manipulative manner behind Savilesexterior.
But was is significant about this particular documentary LouixTheroxwas that it did follow
Ofcomregulations which is significant because when any broadcaster is trying to make documentary
or tv show they are instructed by Ofcom to show fairness as reported on their officialwebsite. The
reason why fairness is important within this documentary and tvprograms in particular is in order
not misrepresent the person or organization to the audience as this can have a direct impact on their
reputation which can be damaging as the audience are being deceived of the actual true and
accuracy which isn’tethically or right for the documentary maker to do as their job is to present and
inform the audience with facts to back up what they are saying. In this particular case the
documentary maker Louix has had to show fairness within the documentary in order not only to
build up the audience trust to follow the story and the purpose of the program meeting Savile and
interviewing and learning new things through allowing time showing fairness through allowing Savile
time to speak and be shown through the editing of the program , but also build a trust with Savile
himself to answer the provocative questions he wants as you can’t dive into the subject head first
only then will the audience get to see the true behavior of Savile himself through the fairness of
interview whereas in the latest documentary of the ITV Exposure: Darker side of jimmy Savile you
could say thereisn’t any fairness because he is deceased and can’t defend himself from the
accusations being made against him which is damaging his reputation.
Asking Savile the Big question:
Leading up the penultimate partof the interview a serious swift in mood changed between Savile
and Therox began to play out in the following transcript according to “http://vimeo.com/52520464”
Louis Theroux: So, why do you say in interviews that you hate children when I've seen you with kids and you
clearly enjoy their company and you have a good rapport with them?
Jimmy Savile: Right, obviously I don't hate 'em. That's number one.
Louis Theroux: Yeah. So why would you say that then?
Jimmy Savile: Because we live in a very funny world. And it's easier for me, as a single man, to say "I don't like
children" because that puts a lot of salacious tabloid people off the hunt.
Louis Theroux: Are you basically saying that so tabloids don't, you know, pursue this whole 'Is he/isn't he a
paedophile?' line, basically?
Jimmy Savile: Yes, yes, yes. Oh, aye. How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know
whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not, so I can tell you from experience that the
easy way of doing it when they're saying "Oh, you have all them children on Jim'll Fix It", say "Yeah, I hate
'em."
Louis Theroux: Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way though, because it seems so
implausible.
Jimmy Savile: Well, that's my policy, that's the way it goes. That's what I do. And it's worked a dream.
In this decisive conversation there is significant and lingering language from Jimmy Savile in regards to how he
responded to Louis Theroux, because Louis Theroux had to tread carefully In order not provoke defamation in
regarding Jimmy Savile through his responses . As Jimmy was making controversial yet haunting responses
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3. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
inthis conversation when Louis Theroux directly spoke of abuse accusations to Savile in this documentary he
wouldn’t then be able to clearly accuse people involved with the abuse scandals as at that time he wouldn’t
have the sufficient evidence and he could have been sued by Savile if we spoke in more detail this issue using
witness. Another important journalistic Ofcom code and convention of the interview had to be within the
documentary was to be aware Jimmy Savile wellbeing i.e don’t cause or provoke harassment through the line
of questioning as this has can direct impact on the person taking part in the interview meaning Savile.
Therefore Theroux didn’t constantly force anything upon Savile to be offended by as he was old and well
known celebrity but he approach controversial subject within a timescale in order to gain Savile trust to get to
the heart of subject to hear his personal opinions and see whether there is any truth in the matter. When
looking back at what Jimmy Savilesaid “How do they know whether I am or not? How does anybody know
whether I am? Nobody knows whether I am or not. I know I'm not, so I can tell you from experience that the
easy way of doing it when they're saying "Oh, you have all them children on Jim'll Fix It", say "Yeah, I hate
'em." And whatLouis Theroux said: Yeah. To me that sounds more, sort of, suspicious in a way though,
because it seems so implausible. This is journalist approach Theroux took was effective and symbolic to the
early beginnings of the tip of the iceberg of the Jimmy Savile child abuse scandal as it would take his death
and one year afterwards to finally unearth the truth about Savile
Research 2:
Exposure ITV documentary- Was it necessary and important to go intoindepth information about the Savile
Abuse?
2012, controversy circulated with a documentary calling into question national treasure children’s
presenter Jimmy Savile reputation of being child sexual predator with it coming up to one year
since.This simply a stir both publicly and in media industry as people said it was insensitive and lack
of respect to the late star and right to air display this documentary at that particular time. This was
important because at that time people thought it was malicious lies that are damaging a dead man
reputation which he isn’t able to defend himself and was uncalled for by documentary makers.
During the lead up of the documentary the makers were subjected to abuse from those to loyal of
Savile which caused into question why are they showing this documentary now what responsibility
and actions can be done now? What is also important to understand about when making the
documentary and how the discovered special findings from people who Jimmy Savile had contact
with was that key elements had to be considered such legal and ethical obligations they the makers
had to not only those who it effected and how they interviewed them, but also to the audience and
how they would display to the audience the seriousness of Jimmy Savile actions. Prior to
understanding the breakthrough of this documentary before understanding of how they gathered
the evidence of Jimmy Savile downfall it is first important to understand that ITV1 took a risk that
paid off as they were charting into darky waters as no one has ever attacked verbally a major star
like Jimmy Savile because he was untouchable and done some really lovely
things such as charitable work through accusing him of sexual abuse.
Beforehand the BBC were going to make Jimmy Savile segment on Newsnight
with reports of child abuse using sexual victims who had been abused by Savile
such as Karin Ward which eventually the program was controversially dropped
by the organization itself for implications they played part in Savile
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4. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
operations.Serious legal and ethical regulations were broken by the BBC who
aresupposed to follow strict Ofcom broadcasting regulators when making this
topic within thisNewsnight programwhich was dropped. As clearly highlighted on the Ofcom website
says that these the particular rules and regulations should be followed:
Where both BBC and Itv Jimmy Savile documentary met or broke these regulations:
1: Privacy BBC when making the Newsnight programme about the
accusations of Jimmy Savile should have followed the
privacy regulation when interviewing the people as it was
sensitive subject for those people who were traumatized
from the events that happened decades earlier .However
instead of doing this they not only did they break the
trust of the interviewee but also the right of a trust well-
known broadcaster as they put their reputation of the
corporation before the wellbeing of the interviewees for
cancelling the programme to cover themselves rather
thinking this could have repercussions on the
interviewees mental state which is unethical.
In comparison to how the victims were treated by the
ITV documentary and BBC news night, the ITV
documentary clearly handed the situation with due
course and care as this was a sensitive situation.
Whereas the BBC tricked the interviewees into believing
they had the right intentions when asking participation
within the documentary only to not air the interviews
2: Harassment: which traumatized the victims to relieve the events from
years ago which were unnecessary as it did lead some
people to go back into depression which is unethical of
the broadcaster.
In comparison to the BBC and Itv , BBC breached these
harassment regulations which is unethical practice of to the BBC
remit and regulations for the audience they have set out when
they first established as organisation. This was because they
prayed on the vulnerable people for when it suited the BBC when
making the news night documentary which has damaged BBC
Newsnight reputation for reporting stories for the public interest.
There were some cases within the exposure documentary Whereas, ITV tried to not in any wayharass the vulnerable people
where there were victims that didn’t wanted to be known so who took part within the documentary as it was sensitive story
they used the official secrets act in order to withheld the that didn’t need serious implications to inflict interviews.So they
real names of the victims so that no further abuse could ITV had a presenter Mark Williams former detective in child
inflict on the individual. Meaning verbal abuse coming to abuse special cased whohad enormous respect to the
light after they have made the serious allegations of jimmy interviewees and time to help portray their story with fair
Savile as there was still admiration for him when this representation of the interviewees with no prejudgement or
documentary Page 4 of 7
air which threatened to destroy his forced agenda behind the programme as ITV told in advance the
representation to which there were a lot of people who interviewees what the programme would be about and weren’t
would come to Jimmy’sdefence as he wouldn’t be able to made to be uncomfortable when revealing what happened to
defend himself as he was dead. them.

5. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
Accuracy was important when making these
3: Accuracy
serious accusations about Savile because ITV
exposure needed to further prove these
weren’t malicious lies so they required time and
patience from both the victims and from the
research process as they would need to provide
a strong enough case to both the network to
sanction the programme ,but to the audience
and the victims as wells as they have morale
justice complexion to portray the real Savile as
he abused his power and reputation for his own
Example of findings -Jimmy Savile accusations
game
People could challenge the accuracy of the Savile
scandal within this particular extract originally
reported in exposure ,as it can be seen as biased as
we are only seeing one response and not hearing
from Jimmy which is unfair as he is dead and more
people are accusing him which is damaging his
reputation. So ITVexposure presenterMark had to
gather more information which corresponding with
similar stories of jimmy actions he would take with
his victims in similar situations which was pointed
out to the audience within the documentary other
victims hadn’t known each other or meet up to
discuss the experiences as they didn’t know it
happened to more than one person. This increased
www.guardian.co.uk/tvandradio/2012/oct the credibility this documentary that this did indeed
happen and that their sufficient evidence and guilt of
/01/jimmy-Savile-abuse-allegations –Newsnight Jimmy Savile although there wasn’t a verbal or
written admission of these terrible crimes and
wrongdoings by Jimmy himself.
Other Evidence of organizations reported and effected by Savile
When looking closely at how the presenter Mark
gathered the evidence that Savile was truly a child
abuser this lead to various research resources that
showed a wide range problem which inflicted several
high profile organisations and intuitions such as
hospitals,prisons, hospices and school etc. What mark
and the team at ITV exposure had to was thoroughly
evaluate evidence as these organisations are very well-
known established within the industry. Therefore all
facts and evidence had to be accurately presented
because if not they could be sued for defamation for
verbally accusing them without sufficient evidence to
back up what they were saying and within this
particular documentary they provided ground-
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breaking evidence which opened the audience eyes of
the man who was once Jim will fix into a monster and
manipulator through various sufficient evidence.

6. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
How print media reported the JimmySavile scandal ?
Following mass findings from the documentary ITV exposure and the sudden drop of the Newsnight
story of Savile the whole nation was gripped with how and why Jimmy Savile was able to commit
these sickening crimes around the country and through intuitions which were deemed safe and
secure. Various newspapers were constantly reporting more disturbing stories of jimmy Savile
abuse day by day weekly unearthing more ways he manipulated his power and authority to get what
he wanted- and how the police along with other authorities missed vital chances to bring him to
justice.
Who regulates the press?
PRESS COMPLAINTS COMMISSION
(PCC)
They are an independent self-monitoring regulator, complaints
commission. It has over the past months been put under a lot of
strain by the phone hacking scandal. They are regulated by the
editors of the newspapers of which recently has caused controversially with the outbreak of the
phone hacking scandal of which had not only effected celebrities. In
regards to how they are relevant in this particular case of Jimmy Savile
scandal there were sufficient rules like Ofcom in the world of
broadcasting the print journalists have to follow in order to not
mislead the audience or be held in contempt of their judies of
journalist when reporting stories as they aren’t meeting legal and
ethical judies of that profession
Key rules:
Accuracy- Within newspapers it is important that facts are displayed due course to the
audience when reading the product in order to not mislead the
audience, thereforethere must be sufficient evidence
beforehand i.e various evidence to back up this information
before doing so.The reason for this because if not the
newspaper can be sued for libel as they are making an
argument without sufficient information backing this which
means it is unlawful as it false and damaging peoples
reputation. An example of this within the Savile scandal is that
some celebrities are being dragged into the scandal through
various allegations being made by victims within the
newspapers which are having serious complications because whenever the audience see or read the
newspapers as you look to the right weird and shocking accusations are being made famous faces i.e
David Lee Travis. This can have serious repercussions as everyone then assumes he is in the same
league as Savile as some people believeSavile couldn’t have done what he did all by himself, which
means David may have been involved or not. However once these claims have been made there is
no going back partly due to the fact the media has partly played a part in tarnishing the reputation in
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7. Amy Poole Unit 50 Writing Copy Assignment 2
trying to go on what was the hard evidence that there was seen as accurate evidence of the
allegations. Several other newspapers have as reported decided to withheld certain celebrities
names because there is a fear they be subjected to audience as the same of Savile when really they
aren’t the personal at all as they are being falsely accused. However this brings to question how
journalist should approach a sensitive subject as this because should they put into consideration
legal and ethical implications first before printing a story of this magnitude with facts sparse and
limited evidence of accuser response such as Savilewhom is dead and not decide to show this or risk
all in the public interest to unravel the sickening the truth that he was. Ifanything personally I think
some journalists are too cautious when deciding to whether to print the stories in question because
over this past year a minority of journalist have printed various stories which have had negative
implications on how the journalists practices themselves I,e the phone hacking scandal lead to
journalists being sued for the methods they extracted the story in the hope it was needed to in
publics interests, whereas certain stories like these need to be told regularly however the
disadvantage of this is that some people will be falsely accused and the journalist will be blamed
and held as libel for playing a part in this process.
Another similarity between Ofcom and PCC is harassment meaning the journalists obligation is to
not cause further distress to the victims themselves i.e if the victim doesn’t want to be named or
photographed within the article then under these regulations the journalist is expected to respect
these wishes as already the respondenthas agreed to conduct this interview under certain
conditions through relieving disturbing memories such as this particular story.
Therefore within stories of abuse under the law and PPC regulations journalists
are prevented from mentioning names of cases under the age of sixteen partly
due the fact the serious implications this could have the on the impact on the
child’s life as they could experience further disruption due abuse as people
would make this situation worse and this will affect their wellbeing meaning they
could face serious emotional problems which isn’t uncalled for by the journalist
for the victim as well. Failure to upheld this has serious complications such as jail
as the journalist has took the freedom
OfficialSecrets act:
This is important as it stops the journalist from revealing top secret information before a final date
has been allowed to showcase this information as it could have damaging impact on social security
and the truth an example of this is when The Mirror reported this scandal the police files.What the
mirror had to do was wait until the case had being reported legally so that they don’t report on the
legal proceedings as they happen because they can be find if found guilty of this as police were still
doing a live evidence and interviews which could be comprised along with the report. So this was the
reason why The Mirror waited because if they didn’t then it would prevent the true extent of the
Savile crimes to be heard to the audience as they could be misrepresented by the newspaper to
fabricate the story for sales rather than considering the effect this would have on the audience
perception of the story which even more damaging.
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