BBC director-general Tim Davy on Wednesday defended the public broadcaster’s handling of comedian Russell Brand’s departure from public radio in 2008, AFP reported.

Accused of raping and sexually assaulting four women in the press and the subject of a police report for sexual assault in 2003, Russell Brand hosted a BBC radio show for two years before resigning in 2008 after an on-air phone call was deemed indecent. a call that raised thousands. complaints

At the time, “a lot of painstaking work” was carried out, Tim Davy, then the public broadcaster’s director of audio, told a conference at the Television Society (RTS) in Cambridge.

“There will always be unanswered questions,” he said when asked if he regrets what was done at the time.

“I think we’re having deep discussions, and we’ve been doing it for years,” to make sure there was no abuse of power, he said.

In light of the “very serious” allegations against Russell Brand, he warned against overconfidence in the approach to be taken.

“Frankly, this is not an issue that can be dismissed as obsolete,” he said, “and there needs to be an important and healthy dialogue around these profound power imbalances.”

The head of the BBC stressed that there were “deep problems with misogyny and abuse of power” and that it was important to be “really vigilant, not condone it and create a culture that we can trust”, that the reports were “taken very seriously”.

Following the revelation of the allegations against Russell Brand this weekend, the BBC, Channel 4 and the production company he works for have announced internal investigations.

At the same event on Wednesday, Channel 4 boss Alex Mahon condemned the fact that “appalling behaviour” was being tolerated in the industry.

YouTube has decided to suspend advertising on a channel owned by Russell Brand on the online video platform, Sky News reported on Tuesday, following allegations of sexual assault against the British actor, Reuters reported.