Cool Hand Luke 22:36
member
This is remarkable. Perhaps there will be less of the usual far-left anti-war propagandizing from the BBC in the future (probably not
).
Second BBC Executive Resigns; Corporation Apologizes to Blair
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 12:35 PM
LONDON -- A second senior executive of the British Broadcasting Corp. announced his resignation Thursday as the corporation issued an unreserved apology to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other officials for reporting they had exaggerated pre-war intelligence about Iraq's access to weapons of mass destruction.
BBC Director General Greg Dyke's resignation came the day after a judicial inquiry concluded the world's largest news organization had broadcast and later failed to retract "unfounded" allegations against Blair and his aides. Corporation chairman Gavyn Davies resigned Wednesday after the inquiry's report was published.
Both Davies and Dyke had insisted that most of the BBC's reporting on the subject had been accurate and raised questions about the inquiry's findings. But the new acting chairman, Richard Ryder, acknowledged in a public statement what he called "serious defects in the corporation's processes and procedures" and promised reforms.
"On behalf of the BBC, I have no hesitation in apologizing unreservedly for our errors and to the individuals whose reputations were affected by them," Ryder added.
Blair, who received full exoneration from the inquiry, welcomed Ryder's apology and signaled an end to the government's eight-month campaign against the BBC. The accusation, first made in a BBC radio report last May, that he and his aides had knowingly published intelligence data that they knew was probably false "has been withdrawn, and that's all I ever wanted," Blair told reporters.
"It allows us to draw a line and allows the BBC to get on with their job and for us to get on with ours," he added.
But BBC staff members and their supporters challenged the findings of the inquiry, which was chaired by Lord Brian Hutton, a retired senior judge, and expressed fears that the apology and resignations could do serious damage to the state-funded corporation's journalistic independence.
"The atmosphere is bleak," said a member of the staff of "Today," the radio news program that first aired the intelligence allegations. "People inside the BBC are desperately anxious that this affair doesn't lead to the unraveling of our independence."
The controversy -- one of the stormiest in the BBC's history -- began when a Today reporter accused the Blair government of publishing a "sexed-up" intelligence dossier -- claiming that Iraq could launch such weapons within 45 minutes of an order -- despite knowing it was probably not true.
Hutton ruled that BBC editors had not adequately scrutinized the allegations before they were broadcast and that editors and senior officials -- including the BBC's board of governors -- had failed to sufficiently investigate after Blair and others in the government heatedly denied the report. On Wednesday, the BBC, one of the largest and most respected news organizations in the world, issued an initial apology for inaccuracies in its original report last May 29 but insisted that most of its reporting had been accurate and in the public interest.
The BBC report and the government's reaction set off a major political controversy here and led to a chain of events that resulted in the apparent suicide in July of David Kelly, a weapons expert in Britain's Defense Ministry, after he was identified publicly as the source for the story. Following the suicide, Blair appointed Hutton, a retired senior judge, to head an independent inquiry.
The outcome was a stunning victory for Blair, who claimed complete vindication. As Hutton released his 328-page report Wednesday and 412-page appendix, Blair appeared before the House of Commons. Citing Hutton's statement that "there was no dishonorable or underhanded or duplicitous strategy on the part of the prime minister" in the Kelly affair, Blair demanded that political opponents retract claims he had lied in denying involvement in leaking Kelly's name to reporters.
Continued at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60232-2004Jan29.html?nav=hptop_tb
[edited to correct a typo-CHL2236]
).Second BBC Executive Resigns; Corporation Apologizes to Blair
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, January 29, 2004; 12:35 PM
LONDON -- A second senior executive of the British Broadcasting Corp. announced his resignation Thursday as the corporation issued an unreserved apology to Prime Minister Tony Blair and other officials for reporting they had exaggerated pre-war intelligence about Iraq's access to weapons of mass destruction.
BBC Director General Greg Dyke's resignation came the day after a judicial inquiry concluded the world's largest news organization had broadcast and later failed to retract "unfounded" allegations against Blair and his aides. Corporation chairman Gavyn Davies resigned Wednesday after the inquiry's report was published.
Both Davies and Dyke had insisted that most of the BBC's reporting on the subject had been accurate and raised questions about the inquiry's findings. But the new acting chairman, Richard Ryder, acknowledged in a public statement what he called "serious defects in the corporation's processes and procedures" and promised reforms.
"On behalf of the BBC, I have no hesitation in apologizing unreservedly for our errors and to the individuals whose reputations were affected by them," Ryder added.
Blair, who received full exoneration from the inquiry, welcomed Ryder's apology and signaled an end to the government's eight-month campaign against the BBC. The accusation, first made in a BBC radio report last May, that he and his aides had knowingly published intelligence data that they knew was probably false "has been withdrawn, and that's all I ever wanted," Blair told reporters.
"It allows us to draw a line and allows the BBC to get on with their job and for us to get on with ours," he added.
But BBC staff members and their supporters challenged the findings of the inquiry, which was chaired by Lord Brian Hutton, a retired senior judge, and expressed fears that the apology and resignations could do serious damage to the state-funded corporation's journalistic independence.
"The atmosphere is bleak," said a member of the staff of "Today," the radio news program that first aired the intelligence allegations. "People inside the BBC are desperately anxious that this affair doesn't lead to the unraveling of our independence."
The controversy -- one of the stormiest in the BBC's history -- began when a Today reporter accused the Blair government of publishing a "sexed-up" intelligence dossier -- claiming that Iraq could launch such weapons within 45 minutes of an order -- despite knowing it was probably not true.
Hutton ruled that BBC editors had not adequately scrutinized the allegations before they were broadcast and that editors and senior officials -- including the BBC's board of governors -- had failed to sufficiently investigate after Blair and others in the government heatedly denied the report. On Wednesday, the BBC, one of the largest and most respected news organizations in the world
, issued an initial apology for inaccuracies in its original report last May 29 but insisted that most of its reporting had been accurate and in the public interest. The BBC report and the government's reaction set off a major political controversy here and led to a chain of events that resulted in the apparent suicide in July of David Kelly, a weapons expert in Britain's Defense Ministry, after he was identified publicly as the source for the story. Following the suicide, Blair appointed Hutton, a retired senior judge, to head an independent inquiry.
The outcome was a stunning victory for Blair, who claimed complete vindication. As Hutton released his 328-page report Wednesday and 412-page appendix, Blair appeared before the House of Commons. Citing Hutton's statement that "there was no dishonorable or underhanded or duplicitous strategy on the part of the prime minister" in the Kelly affair, Blair demanded that political opponents retract claims he had lied in denying involvement in leaking Kelly's name to reporters.
Continued at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60232-2004Jan29.html?nav=hptop_tb
[edited to correct a typo-CHL2236]
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