LONDON, July 27: The war of words between the BBC and the British government heated up Sunday, with the chairman of the public broadcaster alleging a plot to undermine its jealously guarded editorial independence.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Gavyn Davies accused ministers in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government of trying to destroy the BBC’s independence in revenge for its refusal to back down in a two-month-old row over its reporting of a September 2002 dossier on Iraq.
“Our integrity is under attack and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its supporters,” Davies said.
“Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years” — an independent board of governors, which Davies chairs — “should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will ‘bring the BBC to heel’,” he said.
“I trust that wiser heads in the government will prevail.”
The Sunday Telegraph said it was “unprecedented” for a chairman of the British Broadcasting Corp. to lash out at the government in such stark terms.
Davies’ broadside came as Lord Brian Hutton fires up a judicial inquiry into the suicide 10 days ago of David Kelly, a Ministry of Defence consultant on biological weapons and former UN arms inspector in Iraq.
The BBC revealed after Kelly’s death that he was the source of a May 29 radio report which alleged that Downing Street had misused intelligence to “sex up” the September 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
The 50-page dossier was a key plank in Blair’s case for Britain joining the United States in the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein that began March 20, but which has yet to unearth any of Saddam’s feared arsenal.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said Friday that she would “consider very carefully” any recommendations from the Hutton inquiry when making a decision later this year on the BBC’s licence renewal in 2006.
But a spokesman for her department insisted that the review of the licence would not be used to “settle scores” and would not compromise the independence of the BBC.
News of Kelly’s death overshadowed Blair’s trip to East Asia last week, but the prime minister was expected to use his monthly press conference Wednesday to say he intends to seek a third term in office.
“Of course, no doubt about that. He will stand at the next election on the basis that he will stand for a whole term,” said Lord Charles Falconer, secretary for constitutional affairs and a close friend of Blair.
Speculation is rife in London that either Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon or Blair’s media strategist Alastair Campbell will either resign or lose their posts as a result of the furore.
Writing in the Independent on Sunday newspaper, leader of the lower house of parliament Peter Hain alleged that it was the BBC that had “sexed up” its May 29 report on the September 2002 dossier, which notably claimed that Iraq could deploy biological or chemical weapons in a mere 45 minutes.
“Instead of being spectators, the media have become key players in politics,” said Hain, who is responsible for the government’s legislative programme.
“Instead of following the agenda, the media are increasingly setting it,” he said. “We have seen the absolute extreme of this in the recent row between the BBC and the government.”
“A story, based on one source, and ‘sexed up’ to make it more interesting — with the seniority of that source also spun to give the report more credibility — to ensure the greatest embarrassment, in the best traditions of the tabloids, rather than a public service broadcaster.”—AFP