The allegations that the BBC may have tried to cover up claims of child abuse by the television presenter Jimmy Savile would be a serious matter for any broadcaster. They are especially difficult for the BBC, which since the 1960s has played a leading role in promoting human and civil rights, and highlighting threats to women and children from predators.

The former star presenter Esther Rantzen, who fronted the popular consumer affairs programme That’s Life! for 21 years, exposed – among much else – paedophilia at a boarding school named Crookham Hall. She later founded Childline to protect children from abuse: the counselling service, launched on a BBC programme called Childwatch, which Rantzen created, has since then provided a 24-hour phone line for use by abused children. Her shows and charitable work expressed the ethos of the BBC from the 1960s to the present – a proactive assertion that abusive behaviour, which might previously have been ignored or made light of, was inexcusable.

The BBC is thus wide open to the charge of hypocrisy – and to criticism that its public and private actions (or inactions) don’t match. At the same time as it was promoting a culture of care for the powerless, it ignored rumours about abuse of the powerless by one of its biggest stars – because its private culture hadn’t caught up with its public stance.