Acting BBC director general Tim Davie attempted to get a grip on the Newsnight scandal on Monday as the scale of the programme's failings became apparent in a highly critical report.
The BBC began disciplinary action on Monday night against senior editorial staff after an internal investigation discovered "unacceptable" management failings that led to the calamitous Newsnight report on 2 November that wrongly accused an unnamed Tory peer of child sexual abuse.
An investigation by Ken MacQuarrie, the director of BBC Scotland, concluded that basic journalistic errors and a lack of coherent management led to the inaccurate Newsnight report.
The MacQuarrie report confirmed that the Newsnight film was broadcast only five days after it was commissioned and without the erroneous allegation being put to the Tory figure, who later emerged as Lord McAlpine.
Earlier, Davie told the BBC News channel that the MacQuarrie report, which he received on Sunday night, made it clear that to "get a grip" on the situation there needed to be a "clear line of command" in the news division.
"There was a degree of complexity in the news organisation which led to some fuzzy decision making," he said. "It also says there were some journalistic errors. I have been really focused on putting a clear line of command into news so we can build the trust of the BBC."
Davie's first round of broadcast interviews on Monday did not go entirely smoothly, reviving unhappy memories of his predecessor George Entwistle's faltering performances in front of the microphones. Entwistle resigned on Saturday after a particularly disastrous interview with John Humphrys on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Davie, a former Pepsi marketer, looked ill at ease in his first live Sky News interview, edging away from camera at the end, saying he had "a lot to do" while being asked if "more heads will roll". Presenter Dermot Murnaghan said afterwards: "I bet he wouldn't do that to the BBC."
BBC insiders insisted Davie had not walked away from the interview and said that the incident was nothing more than a misunderstanding after it overran.
The BBC declined to identify the staff who may now be subject to disciplinary proceedings, but said it would publish the full MacQuarrie report once those individuals had been dealt with.
MacQuarrie said the Newsnight management structure had been "seriously weakened" in the past month since the editor, Peter Rippon, stepped aside from his job and one of its deputy editors left to join Channel 4 News.
Managerial oversight of Newsnight has gone through wholesale change as a result of action taken over the programme's decision in late 2011 not to broadcast a previous investigation into child sexual abuse by the TV and radio star Jimmy Savile.
BBC News's most senior executives – director Helen Boaden and her deputy, Stephen Mitchell, who has responsibility for Newsnight – were "recused" from Savile-related coverage, including the inaccurate 2 November report into abuse at the Bryn Estyn care home in Wrexham, north Wales.
The production team for the investigation was headed by acting Newsnight editor Liz Gibbons and overseen by Adrian Van Klaveren, the Salford-based controller of Radio 5 Live, who was seconded back to London in late October to oversee Savile-related coverage. This included Newsnight's inaccurate story on McAlpine. Van Klaveren in turn reported to Peter Johnston, director of BBC Northern Ireland, who was standing in for Boaden and Mitchell.
The National Union of Journalists put out a statement on behalf of Newsnight staff saying that they were kept in the dark about the controversial 2 November broadcast.
"The overwhelming majority of those who work there had no involvement with the story, and were not consulted about it before broadcast," the NUJ said. "They are determined to go on doing their jobs and to support the BBC management in its effort to go on delivering the corporation's world class journalism."
The Newsnight report was fronted by the veteran Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporter Angus Stickler.
The bureau's managing editor, Iain Overton, resigned on Monday, but maintained he had no editorial input into the Bryn Estyn report. "I am incredibly sorry that people have had to resign over it," he said. "I am incredibly sorry we got the journalism wrong. I am incredibly sorry Steve Messham [the abuse victim featured in the report] must have been to hell and back, and I'm incredibly sorry for Lord McAlpine."
Messham has since apologised for wrongly claiming that the peer had sexually abused him, saying that his claim was based on a case of mistaken identity.
A spokesman for Bureau of Investigative Journalism said: "The production of this film was 100% overseen by the BBC." Stickler did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
