Russell Brand

Crisis management: how to handle a media firestorm

Four photos in a two-by-two grid of (from top left clockwise) John Gapper, Andy Coulson, Caroline Kean and Greg Dyke

As the allegations against Russell Brand circled the broadcasters gathered at Cambridge, there was particular interest in this session about – as the panel chair, John Gapper, put it with an ironic smile – “the incredibly unlikely situation” in which a media crisis erupts involving a well-known TV figure.

BBC Director-General Tim Davie on Freely and future-proofing the BBC

BBC director-general Tim Davie sits in a chair and gestures with his hand

Another week, another BBC media storm. As allegations of rape and other forms of sexual abuse emerged against Russell Brand, a former Radio 2 and Radio 6 Music presenter who resigned in 2008 following a prank phone call to actor Andrew Sachs, the BBC’s Director-­General, Tim Davie, once again found himself having to defend the corporation’s culture.