Channel 4’s chief government has described the allegations made in opposition to Russell Brand as “horrendous” and stated it’s clear that “terrible behaviour towards women was historically tolerated” within the TV trade.
Alex Mahon made the feedback about Brand as she addressed the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention, scheduled earlier than the allegations of sexual assault emerged on the weekend.
Some of the claims date again to when the comic was presenting the Big Brother spin-off programme Big Brother’s Big Mouth on Channel 4.
Brand, 48, denies any allegations made in opposition to him.
Mahon informed the viewers on the conference that the alleged behaviour, made public in a joint investigation by The Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches, must be appeared into additional.
She urged individuals with any data to get in contact anonymously in the event that they wish to.
“They’re not empty words or gestures,” she stated, including that the broadcaster will look to seek out out who knew what about any alleged inappropriate behaviour throughout Brand’s time on the present.
“But what is clear to me is that terrible behaviour towards women was historically tolerated in our industry, and the clips we’ve seen as well provide a rather shocking jolt when one realises what appeared on air not that long ago,” she stated.
“The behaviour is less prevalent now, but it’s still a problem and it’s something that we must all confront. There is still more change that needs to come.”
She added: “The allegations made in opposition to Russell Brand are horrendous, and as a CEO of Channel 4 and as a lady in our trade.
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“I found the behaviours described in Dispatches and The Sunday Times and The Times articles disgusting and saddening.
“The allegations after all should be adopted up additional, and we and the BBC and Banijay [a production company] are busy investigating.”
BBC general director, Tim Davie, who was also speaking at the event, said there needed to be an “essential dialogue across the deep imbalances of energy” within the television industry.
“I believe there is a deep duty for the leaders. The tradition must be certainly one of belief,” he added.
“There has been deep issues with misogyny, abuse of energy, and we simply need to be completely vigilant – be unaccepting of it.”
BBC and Channel 4 remove Brand content
Four women made sexual abuse allegations against the star between 2006 and 2013 as part of the investigation by The Sunday Times and Dispatches.
Brand, who denies the allegations, claimed in a video posted online on Friday night that all his relationships have been “consensual”.
The Metropolitan Police stated it acquired an allegation of sexual assault in opposition to Russell Brand courting again to 2003 following the publication of the claims.
On Tuesday, Mr Davie introduced a evaluation into Brand’s time on the company.
The announcement got here hours after the broadcaster eliminated a few of its content material that includes Brand from iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
TV manufacturing agency Banijay UK, house owners of Endemol, which produced Big Brother and its spin-offs, confirmed over the weekend that it had launched an investigation.
YouTube additionally suspended adverts on movies by Brand, whereas Channel 4 took down content material that includes the comic from its streaming service.
The Google-owned firm stated it had suspended the monetisation of Brand’s channel for “violating our Creator Responsibility policy”.
The comic discovered fame within the early 2000s on the stand-up circuit and as a TV host, earlier than starring in Hollywood movies corresponding to Forgetting Sarah Marshall and presenting a present on BBC Radio 2.
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However, lately, he has switched to wellness teaching and producing common YouTube movies – from which he’s thought to derive a lot of his earnings.
Brand maintains a presence on Rumble – a video web site widespread with some conservatives and far-right teams – the place his channel has 1.4m followers and X, previously referred to as Twitter, the place he has greater than 11m followers.
He has not posted on both since his video denial on Friday.
‘Pretty miserable’
It comes as a TV government who labored at an organization that employed Brand described the allegations in opposition to the star as “depressing”.
Phil Edgar-Jones was inventive director of Remarkable Pictures, a part of Endemol UK, and oversaw Big Brother throughout its Channel 4 years.
Speaking to Sky News, he stated: “There was never any sense that he’d done anything inappropriate that was brought to our attention, certainly.
“We knew he had a popularity for being promiscuous – and everyone knew that on the time – however that is so far as it went, so far as we knew.”
He added that the allegations were “fairly miserable”.
Mr Edgar-Jones, who is now director of Sky Arts and Entertainment, went on to stress that Remarkable Pictures would “100%” have acted if something was brought to its attention.
Removing YouTube earnings is ‘cancel culture’
Brand was at the centre of the so-called “Sachsgate” scandal in 2008, when he and TV presenter Jonathan Ross left lewd messages on the answerphone of Andrew Sachs, the late actor who starred in Fawlty Towers.
The voicemails had associated to Sachs’ granddaughter Georgina Baillie, who had an on-off relationship with Brand within the 2000s.
Speaking to The Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge, Baillie stated that YouTube’s determination to droop earnings from Brand’s channel amounted to “cancel culture”.
The 38-year-old actress went on to say that, though she didn’t know the entire particulars surrounding the allegations, among the proof is “compelling”.
When requested about her ideas concerning the claims, Baillie added: “I don’t know what happened there – I don’t know because I wasn’t there. He never did anything like that with me, everything was more than consensual, I promise.”
Source: information.sky.com”