Departing Van Klaveren salutes 5 live staff
RADIO 5 live’s controller Adrian Van Klaveren has praised the Salford-based station’s 200 staff in a valedictory statement.
Mr Van Klaveren, who oversaw 5 live’s move to Salford last year, was forced to step down following an investigation into the Newsnight programme that falsely linked Lord McAlpine to child sex abuse.
He was involved in the programme because he had been seconded to oversee any coverage relating to Jimmy Savile and child sexual abuse more generally.
In a statement he said the team at MediaCityUK were the best he had ever worked with, and that BBC North was helping to “guide the reinvention of the BBC”.
He will be moved to an as yet unconfirmed “senior role” at the BBC and the station is now being run by his deputy Jonathan Wall.
Mr Van Klaveren said: “I will miss 5 live terribly, the programmes, our listeners but, much more than anything else, I will miss all of you who work on the station.
“You are without doubt the best team of people I have ever worked with. Every day you make brilliant radio with a spirit and passion I have rarely seen elsewhere. You can look to the future with pride and confidence and it has been an honour to have played a part in shaping those prospects.
“I would like to thank all of my colleagues across BBC North where I believe we have started to build something which will help guide the reinvention of the BBC and equally I would like to thank colleagues from all parts of BBC Radio for their support over the past few years.”
He added: “What is of course especially hard to take is that I am leaving 5 live as a result of events which had nothing to do with how I carried out my job here. Rather it happened after I had just begun a temporary role in the most challenging of circumstances.”
Mr Van Klaveren joined the corporation as a news trainee from Oxford University in 1983 before rising to the role of producer on the Nine O’Clock News three years later. He went on to work for Newsnight, Panorama, and hold senior roles overseeing news output across the corporation.
The Newsnight programme – which led to the resignation of director general George Entwistle – was investigated by the director of BBC Scotland Ken MacQuarrie.
The MacQuarrie Review found that “basic journalistic checks on the story were not carried out” and the Newsnight team “did not make adequate attempts to seek validation for the story beyond what the reporter delivered”.
Newsnight’s editorial team will be replaced, with deputy editor Liz Gibbons moving to a new role.
