Even now the BBC refuses to apologise

THE BBC last night defended its controversial coverage of the police raid on Sir Cliff Richard’s home, amid continued speculation that he may sue the Corporation for breaching his privacy.

After the broadcast in August 2014, the BBC received hundreds of complaints from viewers, with many saying that the coverage made the singer look guilty.

As a result of being tipped off, TV reporters were able to film live aerial shots of the raid on Sir Cliff’s Berkshire home.

A camera in a helicopter zoomed in on officers through windows as they searched the star’s belongings, while journalists reported live from his gates. A report into the affair by the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee said South Yorkshire Police had been ‘utterly inept’ but added that the Corporation was ‘well within its rights’ to run the story.

At the time of the committee’s report in October 2014, BBC director-general Lord Hall said that if a news editor or other senior figure had been informed of the sensitivity of the investigation, ‘we would not have run the story’.

The report claimed that a BBC reporter, Dan Johnson, threatened to break the story pre- maturely unless he was granted ‘inside access’ to the police raid.

Keith Vaz, the committee’s chairman, commented: ‘South Yorkshire Police’s handling of this situation was utterly inept.

‘No British citizen should have to watch their home being raided by the police live on television. Sir Cliff Richard has suffered enormous and irreparable damage to his reputation and he is owed an apology.’

But yesterday a BBC spokesman did not apologise and defended its coverage, saying: ‘We applied normal editorial judgements to a story that was covered widely by all media and have continued to report the investigation as it developed including the CPS’s decision today – which is running prominently across our news output.’

Sources added that the Home Affairs Select Committee ‘endorsed the way the BBC handled this story’, and that its report states: ‘By cooperating the force “stood the story up” and absolved the BBC of any risk or responsibility for the story.’

In February last year, the Mail revealed that a secret report, by independent investigator and former chief constable Andy Trotter, had concluded that Sir Cliff had had his privacy violated after a secret deal between police and the BBC to film the raid on his home.