BBC NI Director Peter Johnston stepping away from role until next summer

The director of BBC Northern Ireland, Peter Johnston, is temporarily stepping aside from his role until summer 2022.

Mr Johnston has been asked to lead the delivery of a plan to improve the corporation's impartiality.

The move comes after an inquiry by Lord Dyson.

It found the BBC fell short of "high standards of integrity and transparency" over Martin Bashir's 1995 interview with Princess Diana.

As a result, the BBC subsequently commissioned a review, led by Sir Nicholas Serota, into its editorial processes, governance and culture.

Mr Johnston has been asked by the BBC director general Tim Davie to lead the delivery of the impartiality plan and actions agreed following the Serota review.

Sir Nicholas found that the events uncovered by Lord Dyson "were a betrayal of the values and standards which should underpin every action at the BBC, at all levels".

"There was a failure of scrutiny at each stage," his report said.

Sir Nicholas also recommended a number of changes including "strengthened governance, a significantly improved system for raising editorial concerns and whistleblowing," and "less defensiveness and more transparency in how the BBC reacts to the outside world".

But Sir Nicholas found that the corporation had improved its whistleblowing and investigative procedures since the "clear failings" identified by Lord Dyson's report.

As a result of the Serota review, the BBC committed to a 10-point "impartiality plan" to "further raise standards across the organisation and challenge claims of bias".

The corporation said that the plan represented its "biggest and most significant push to ensure its programmes and content are fair, accurate and unbiased and truly reflect the broad public which it serves".

Mr Johnston, who will lead the delivery of this plan, has been the director of BBC Northern Ireland since 2006.

In a message to staff, Mr Johnston said this was "a complex and substantial piece of work which needs to begin immediately".

"As a consequence, I will be stepping away from my role as director BBC Northern Ireland until next summer," he said.

"We'll be putting arrangements in place to appoint an interim director BBC Northern Ireland as soon as possible and I will support them in whatever way I can and stay in touch with local BBC issues and developments."

The impartiality plan includes measures like a new whistleblowing policy, more representation of different views and viewpoints on and off screen, better governance and more training on impartiality for staff.