Nick Pollard

George Nicholas Pollard (born 15 November 1950) is a British journalist and the former head of Sky News.

Early life and education

Pollard was born in Birkenhead and educated at Birkenhead School,[1] an independent school in the town.

Career in journalism

Pollard started his career in journalism as a reporter at the Birkenhead News, and later worked for the BBC from 1977 to 1980 in Liverpool and London.[1]

ITN

He was executive producer at ITN from 1987 to 1992 on the News at Ten. He was a television journalist at ITN from 1980 to 1992. He produced ITN's coverage for the elections in 1987 and 1992.

Sky News

He joined Sky News where he worked from 1996 to 2006.[2][3] In 2009 he was appointed as chief executive of the Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC), responsible for providing broadcasting and cinema services to British forces and their families.[2]

In October 2012, Pollard was appointed to lead an inquiry into the BBC following allegations of sexual abuse by the late broadcaster and disc jockey Jimmy Savile. Pollard's remit was to look at why an investigation into Savile's activities by journalists on the BBC Two news programme Newsnight was dropped shortly before it was due to be transmitted.[4] His report was published in December 2012 and concluded that the decision to drop the original Newsnight report in December 2011 was "flawed", but that it had not been done to protect programmes prepared as tributes to Savile. His report criticised George Entwistle, at that time Director of BBC Vision, for apparently failing to read emails warning him of Savile's "dark side",[5] and stated that, after the allegations against Savile eventually became public, the BBC fell into a "level of chaos and confusion [that] was even greater than was apparent at the time".[6]

In July 2014, Pollard launched Forces TV, run by Services Sound and Vision Corporation (SSVC).

China Global Television Network

In December 2018, he joined China Global Television Network(CGTN) as a consultant and advisor,[7] but quit CGTN over its failure to comply with Ofcom’s rules on impartiality in connection to its coverage of the anti-extradition bill protests.[8]

Personal life

Pollard is married with two sons.[1] He married Sally Behenna in 1981.

gollark: ```pythonbot = commands.Bot(command_prefix='++', description="AutoBotRobot, the most useless bot on the planet.", case_insensitive=True)@bot.eventasync def on_message(message): print(message.content) await bot.process_commands(message)```is the particularly relevant bit.
gollark: It is not.
gollark: ++exec```python3q = "``" + "`"print(f"++exec\n{q}python3\nprint('hi')\n{q}")```
gollark: Hmm, didn't respond to itself.
gollark: ++exec```python3q = "``" + "`"print(f"++exec\n{q}python3\nprint('hi')\n{q}")```

References
  1. Adair, Kirsti (4 June 2003). "'Could Do Better'". Liverpool Daily Post. Liverpool. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  2. "Former Head of Sky News becomes new SSVC Chief Executive". BFBS. 2009. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  3. "Me and my career". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 22 April 2002. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  4. Mason, Rowena (16 October 2012). "BBC's Jimmy Savile probe to be led by Harold Shipman inquiry judge". The Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group. Retrieved 16 October 2012.
  5. Halliday, Josh (19 December 2012). "Pollard report: George Entwistle 'did not read emails' about Jimmy Savile". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  6. Sabbagh, Dan; Plunkett, John (19 December 2012). "Pollard inquiry: BBC 'incapable' of dealing with Jimmy Savile affair". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  7. Yan, Sophia (11 July 2019). "Chinese state broadcaster hires former Ofcom director amid investigation". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  8. Nilsson, Patricia (18 September 2019). "Former Ofcom director quits Chinese state broadcaster". The Financial Times. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
Media offices
Preceded by
 Head of Sky News
1996 – June 2006		 Succeeded by
John Ryley



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