Huw Edwards Holds Onto BAFTA, RTS Awards Despite Pleading Guilty to Making Indecent Images of Children

Huw Edwards will hold on to a number of his glittering media awards despite having pleaded guilty to three charges of making indecent images of children.

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The former BBC News anchor accrued a number of awards, including BAFTA and Royal Television Society gongs, over the years, often as part of a BBC reporting team, for example a 2012 BAFTA which was presented to BBC News for its reporting of William and Kate’s Royal Wedding.

In 2023 the BBC News team won in the live event category for their coverage of Queen Elizabeth II’s death, which was famously led by Edwards.

These will not be rescinded, both BAFTA and RTS confirmed.

“Our Live Event category for the RTS Programme Awards is presented to a programme as a whole and the team behind it,” said an RTS spokesperson. “We are therefore not reviewing or rescinding this award from 2023.”

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BAFTA declined to comment on the awards Edwards received as part of the BBC News reporting team but they said the awards body is reviewing his BAFTA Cymru awards, which specifically honor the Welsh film and television industry. Edwards won six Bafta Cymru gongs for best onscreen presenter between 2001 and 2010.

“Like everyone in the industry and country we were shocked by the news – given the seriousness of this abhorrent crime, we are reviewing,” said a BAFTA spokesperson.

Until his resignation this year, Edwards was the BBC’s highest-paid and best-known news anchor, having spent the entirety of his once distinguished 40-year career at the broadcaster. He took a leave of absence last year after a tabloid reported he had paid for sexually explicit images from a teenager. Edwards was later charged in a separate incident after receiving a number of images of children being abused from a paedophile with whom he was communicating via WhatsApp.

Deadline first reported the news of Edwards’ awards.

Huw Edwards Pleads Guilty to Making Indecent Images of Children; BBC Expresses 'Shock' Over Details Revealed in Court