Hutton probe - BBC slammed
From
The Guardian:
bq.
BBC targeted as Hutton clears Blair
Lord Hutton, speaking at the high court, in central London, reads the findings of his report.
bq. Lord Hutton today gave full backing to the government's conduct in the David Kelly affair, but accused the BBC of "defective" editorial management. In a one and three-quarter hour summary of his findings, delivered at the high court, the judge ran through the sequence of events that began with the writing of the September 2002 dossier and ended with Dr Kelly's suicide.
bq. The prime minister, Tony Blair, has called for those who had impugned his integrity and that of the government to withdraw their allegations.
bq. By contrast, the BBC's robust defence of itself in the face of government complaints over the story came in for heavy criticism.
bq. The law lord said the corporation's management had failed to appreciate that BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan's notes did not support the most serious of his allegations.
And more:
bq. Lord Hutton accused Alastair Campbell of "raising the temperature" of the row by the tone of his complaints. But he added that the governors should have recognised that their legitimate desire to protect the BBC's independence was not incompatible with investigating those complaints.
Whooo! The BBC had a whiff of a story, ran it and one of the key people (David Kelley) in the story killed themselves because of the allegations. The Hutton inquiry was determined to get to the bottom of this and it looks like they did...
This just in - I checked Google News and it seems the Chairman of the BBC has just resigned... This report from
Reuters/UK:
bq. The chairman of the BBC has resigned after the Hutton inquiry lambasted some of the publicly funded broadcaster's reporting on the build-up to the war in Iraq, says BBC News 24.
bq. The inquiry by Lord Hutton into the suicide of Iraq weapons expert David Kelly had singled out journalist Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's management and its supervisory board of governors for criticism. BBC News 24 said Chairman Gavyn Davies had stepped down.
Wow!
Posted by DaveH at January 28, 2004 9:22 AM