Ross keeps job after calls scandal
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Jonathan Ross was cleared to keep his £6 million-a-year BBC job despite being criticised by the corporation's governing body over two offensive broadcasts.
Repeated failures of editorial judgment allowed swearing and other obscene material to be aired in a series of TV and radio programmes, the BBC Trust said.
The Trust said the worst case was an episode of Radio 2's Russell Brand Show which included obscene messages left on Sachs's answerphone by Ross, 48, and Brand, 33.
The two presenters said Brand had slept with the 78-year-old Fawlty Towers actor's granddaughter, Georgina Baillie, 23, and joked that Sachs might kill himself.
It also condemned an edition of BBC1's flagship chat show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, in which the host said he would "f***" actress Gwyneth Paltrow if his wife permitted.
In the furore that followed the airing of the Sachs calls on October 18, Brand resigned and Ross was suspended without pay for 12 weeks.
Radio 2's controller, Lesley Douglas, and head of compliance, David Barber, also quit their jobs after clearing the programme for broadcast despite knowing about its contents.
The BBC is still facing an investigation by regulator Ofcom, which has the power to impose a fine of up to £250,000.
Delivering its report into the row at Broadcasting House in central London, the BBC Trust condemned both the recording and the airing of the material.
But it said it would not be seeking further sanctions against Ross, meaning he will be able to return to his presenting job early next year.
Radio 2 has said he will be back on air on January 24 but BBC1 has not confirmed when he will resume his TV show.
BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "We are very clear that the Director-General has taken the right action with respect to Jonathan Ross."
The Trust said there was no editorial justification for airing the messages left on Sachs's answerphone.
It described the decision to do so as an "unacceptable and deplorable intrusion" into the private lives of the actor and Miss Baillie.
The BBC was also criticised for failings that allowed Brand to broadcast offensive material on Radio 1's Chris Moyles Show at a time when many children were listening.
Sir Michael attacked a "lack of editorial judgment by those in control" in all these cases and said the BBC had a "cultural issue" which managers had to tackle.
The BBC's management said it accepted the Trust's findings in full.
It said in a statement: "The BBC is determined to act on the lessons learnt from this incident, in particular to reinforce adherence to the BBC's compliance systems.
"This will be a major priority within the BBC's audio and music division."
BBC executives will pay particular attention to the Trust's ruling on the use of language and audience expectations.
"Management will reinforce due consideration of the editorial guidelines, a strict adherence to the editorial referral process and will exercise considerable care over the use of language, especially of the most offensive words or phrases," the BBC statement said.
Sachs and his family are "tired" of the controversy but feel no bitterness towards the BBC presenters, the actor's wife Melody said after the trust's ruling was released.
She added: "Andrew has got nothing to say. I don't suppose he wants to do anything more about it."
Miss Baillie said she was "happy" with the Trust's findings, adding: "It is now time to draw a line under the matter and move on."
As the row raged on, Miss Baillie spent the afternoon performing with her burlesque dance troupe, the Satanic Sluts, at the Erotica 2008 exhibition in Olympia, west London.
Some MPs were critical of the Trust's ruling and repeated calls for Ross to lose his job.
Liberal Democrat MP Phil Willis said taxpayers deserved better standards for their money.
"I am disappointed that this is the result and I think that once again the BBC have demonstrated that it is one law for its highly-paid stars and one law for everyone else," he said.
"When we are forking out millions of pounds of taxpayers' money on presenters, the least we can expect is a level of propriety commensurate with what the public considers decent.
"That didn't happen in this case and I think Mr Ross should have been sacked."
The BBC's executive directors, including Director-General Mark Thompson, have agreed to waive their bonuses for 2009 given the current financial environment, Sir Michael revealed.