British Culture Secretary John Whittingdale accuses BBC of smear campaign by running prostitution story

British Culture Secretary John Whittingdale called out left wing Labour MPs and press campaigners for plotting against him by exposing his relationship with a prostitute. According to Whittingdale, the group wants him out for refusing to operate a crackdown on newspapers.

On the Tuesday coverage of BBC's Newsnight, the program made an exclusive report about John Whittingdale's relationship with a prostitute. Four other newspaper groups had declined to run the story to avoid issues of privacy breach.

The other newspapers who investigated on the relationship were reportedly aware of its truth, but hesitated to publish the story for fear of making an enemy out of the chair of the House of Commons Media Select Committee.

The BBC is being accused of pursuing a smear campaign against the Culture Secretary as the story was released while discussion over the license fee is at a critical stage. The discussion involves John Whittingdale's attempt to urge BBC to give public money to rival broadcasters to be spent on children's programming.

"The way the BBC has marched into a story that should be an entirely private matter and is hardly in the public interest suggest that they have got an agenda in attacking John. His reputation is being smeared," a cabinet minister told The Telegraph. "It is really not the way we expect a major public service broadcaster to behave. People will conclude that it's all about licence fee,"

Labor and privacy advocates protested to have Whittingdale stripped off of his authority over press regulation. They contend, however, that the issue is vested with public interest.

"The public cannot have faith in his judgment, in his independence in making decisions about the media," Brian Cathcart of the Hacked Off campaign group said, as quoted by The Independent.  "It is not a story about John Whittingdale's private life. It is a story about why the press didn't cover this.

According to the National Post, BBC strongly denies having any motive to smear John Whittingdale's reputation through the story.

Whittingdale admitted the relationship, which lasted from August 2013 to February 2014. He explained, however, that the woman did not give any indication that she was a prostitute at the time they were dating. He immediately cut off their relationship when he found out.

Tags

BBC, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, Press Freedom, Hacked Off, British newspapers, press regulation, Prostitute

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