Hi The Learner,
Excellent post,you may be intereted in this which I found on Wales online
'Broadcasters refused to commission documentary on paedophile John Owen'
The Leveller
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Martin Shipton, Chief Reporter
Oct 26 2012
Karl Francis, one of Wales' most prominent film directors
One of Wales? most prominent film directors has entered the Jimmy Savile controversy by accusing the BBC and ITV of refusing to commission a documentary he proposed about paedophile dramatist John Owen.
Karl Francis, a former head of drama at BBC Wales, alleges that neither broadcaster had been prepared to screen the proposed programme because it would have highlighted Owen?s abuse of teenagers while they worked with him on TV programmes, as well as embarrassing the Welsh language ?establishment?.
John Owen committed suicide in 2001. He had been due to stand trial for offences allegedly committed against pupils of Rhydfelen Welsh medium comprehensive school in Pontypridd, where he had been a drama teacher.
His death provoked huge controversy, with suggestions from relatives of his alleged victims that Mr Owen had been protected because of his prominent position in Welsh language media circles. Many prominent people attended his funeral.
He produced a teen drama series called Pam Fi Duw? (Why me, God?) under the auspices of ITV Wales for S4C.
Mr Francis said: ?Owen?s way of operating was very similar to Savile?s. Both used their celebrity to help them abuse children and both should have been stopped.?
The proposal he says he sent to the BBC and ITV networks in 2004 was for a documentary to be called A Paedophile At Large in Television. It states: ?The subject matter is about a paedophile, John Owen, director/writer and producer, eventually, of children's programmes in Wales, in the Welsh language.
?The real problem about making this documentary with Welsh television companies such as BBC Wales or HTV Wales is that they employed John Owen and they are very reluctant to examine their parts in this story.
?John Owen was protected by the Welsh language {establishment} when he was a teacher 12 years ago. Actors, who were his students, subsequently went to the police. I have the support of these actors who are the main victims and eloquently explain the case.
?As an investigative documentary maker, I have talked to HTV Wales {now ITV Wales} who say it is not their business to investigate their former employees. Also, BBC Wales now employs several people who previously employed John Owen, who cannot be seen to make a documentary about John Owen.
?As far back as 1999, when he was investigated by police and lost his job at a Welsh language school, cover-ups, which had been made, were now coming out. The education system is clearly culpable, but the real issue is not simply this but the number of cases one comes across when investigating Welsh speaking communities who are being protected by the Welsh language {establishment}.
?The serious question one must ask is how are television documentaries made about paedophile priests in Wales, but not about paedophile Welsh speakers? This raises all kinds of moral and political issues.
?Some of the people who will participate in this are the actors who were seduced by John Owen, the police officers who were involved in the original investigation 12 years ago, the people who believe that John Owen was innocent and the actors who took their case to the police. Also the various media people who were prevented from making documentaries at the time about these issues.
?The fascinating thing, of course, is the way in which someone like John Owen can completely dominate other people and live a very secret life. The fact that he was directing young actors, naked, for S4C and HTV, would have been known to these people, together with the fact that he had been the subject of a paedophile inquiry a few years earlier. We need to question the judgement of the people who employed him.?
Owen was employed to do a play about the miners' strike: next page
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http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/2012/10/26/broadcasters-refused-to-commission-documentary-on-paedophile-john-owen-91466-32103168/#ixzz2BOLhY7BW