August 29, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-us-Sani 30, 1424

LONDON, Aug 28: The chairman of the BBC on Thursday accused British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s advisers of launching “inappropriate” attacks on the public broadcaster’s credibility after it claimed that the case for war in Iraq had been hyped up.

Comments by Mr Blair’s close aide Alastair Campbell accusing the BBC of lying when it reported the government had “sexed up” a pre-war dossier on Iraq’s weapons had been excessive, Gavyn Davies said.

“I felt this was an extraordinary moment, almost unprecedented, an unprecedented attack on the BBC to be mounted by the head of communications at Downing Street,” Mr Davies told the judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly.

“I took this as an attack on the integrity of the BBC and the impartiality of the BBC,” said Mr Davies, who heads the corporation’s board of governors.

Mr Davies said that Campbell’s appearance before a parliamentary committee on June 25 had prompted a “major escalation” of the row.

“The attack on the BBC was so encompassing and so continuous it really was for the board of governors to stand up and say that parts of this attack were inappropriate,” he said.—AFP