BBC admits error in Kelly affair
The Telegraph:
"Panorama, the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, will this week broadcast a special peak-time programme deeply critical of the way the corporation handled its coverage of the events that led to the Hutton inquiry.
"The programme has caused intense divisions within the BBC as it will be hard-hitting in its scrutiny of some of its own journalists and will also clear the Government of dishonesty in its handling of intelligence material.
...
"The programme, A Fight to the Death, is expected to be particularly critical of Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's Today programme journalist who reported alleged concern in the intelligence services about the Government's first dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. It also criticises the corporation for standing by Gilligan before conducting an adequate investigation to establish the facts.
...
"The documentary will be critical of the BBC's decision to stand behind Gilligan's report without fully investigating how well-founded his original claim was and the inconsistencies in his broadcasts.
"Moreover, had BBC managers looked at the reporter's original notes of his meeting with Dr Kelly, they would have discovered that these did not record Dr Kelly as saying the words Gilligan attributed to him.
"No one asked to see his notes, however, and so the BBC only discovered that what came to be the central plank of its defence - that Mr Gilligan was 'only faithfully reporting the words that his source had told him' - was unsupported when the reporter gave evidence to the Hutton Inquiry."
The Telegraph:
"Panorama, the BBC's flagship current affairs programme, will this week broadcast a special peak-time programme deeply critical of the way the corporation handled its coverage of the events that led to the Hutton inquiry.
"The programme has caused intense divisions within the BBC as it will be hard-hitting in its scrutiny of some of its own journalists and will also clear the Government of dishonesty in its handling of intelligence material.
...
"The programme, A Fight to the Death, is expected to be particularly critical of Andrew Gilligan, the BBC's Today programme journalist who reported alleged concern in the intelligence services about the Government's first dossier about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. It also criticises the corporation for standing by Gilligan before conducting an adequate investigation to establish the facts.
...
"The documentary will be critical of the BBC's decision to stand behind Gilligan's report without fully investigating how well-founded his original claim was and the inconsistencies in his broadcasts.
"Moreover, had BBC managers looked at the reporter's original notes of his meeting with Dr Kelly, they would have discovered that these did not record Dr Kelly as saying the words Gilligan attributed to him.
"No one asked to see his notes, however, and so the BBC only discovered that what came to be the central plank of its defence - that Mr Gilligan was 'only faithfully reporting the words that his source had told him' - was unsupported when the reporter gave evidence to the Hutton Inquiry."
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