Greg
Dyke accused Downing Street of "systematic bullying" and
"intimidation" of the BBC over its coverage of the Iraq war.
To back his case, he released a copy of a letter to
Tony Blair providing evidence of the ill feeling that existed between No
10 and the corporation even before the BBC's controversial report
claiming the government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) was "sexed up":
Dear Tony
Thank you for your letter of March
19th. I note that a similar letter was sent to Gavyn Davies, the
Chairman of the BBC, and a longer version was sent by Alastair Campbell
to our Director of News, Richard Sambrook. They will also be replying.
Firstly, and I do not mean to be
rude, but having faced the biggest ever public demonstration in this
country and the biggest ever backbench rebellion against a sitting
government by its own supporters, would you not agree that your
communications advisors are not best placed to advise whether or not the
BBC has got the balance right between support and dissent? Given these
circumstances they are hardly in a position to make a reasoned judgment
about the BBC’s impartiality.
You have been engaged in a difficult
battle fighting for your particular view of the world to be accepted
and, quite understandably, you want that to be reported. We however have
a different role in society. Our role in these circumstances is to try
to give a balanced picture.
It is perfectly legitimate for you or
your advisors to complain about particular stories — journalism is an
imperfect profession — and if we make mistakes as we inevitably do,
under my leadership we will always say we were wrong and apologise.
However, for you to question the whole of the BBC’s journalistic output
across a wide range of radio, television and online services because you
are concerned about particular stories which don’t favour your view is
unfair.
I believe we have made major efforts
to ensure that the issues and events surrounding Iraq have been properly
reported. Let me explain how we have done that.
Some weeks ago I set up and chaired
an ad hoc committee which included all the most senior editorial figures
at the BBC in order to discuss our coverage of the Iraq issue.
It was that committee which decided
to prevent any senior editorial figures at the BBC from going on the
anti-war march; it was that committee which insisted that we had to find
a balanced audience for programmes like Question Time at a time when it
was very hard to find supporters of the war willing to come on; and it
was that same committee which, when faced with a massive bias against
the war amongst phone-in callers, decided to increase the number of
phone lines so that pro-war listeners had a better chance of getting
through and getting onto the programmes. All this was done in an attempt
to ensure our coverage was balanced.
That same committee has discussed on
a number of occasions whether or not our reports from Baghdad needed to
be qualified. Until yesterday we have been of the opinion that our
journalism has not been restricted in a way which required qualification
as a matter of course and even yesterday, after the war started, our
reporters did not have Iraqi “minders” and were free to move around the
city. At no point has their copy been checked before being broadcast.
My point is that we have discussed
these sorts of issues at length and made the best judgments we could.
That our conclusions didn’t always please Alastair is unfortunate but
not our primary concern.
You quote a number of instances where
you believe your position has not been fairly reported. I could easily
quote an equal number where the opposite applied but this would be a
pointless discussion. I can only assure you that under my leadership I
will do everything in my power to defend the BBC’s fairness,
independence and impartiality. My committee is now meeting on a daily
basis and we discuss the reporting of the Iraq issue every morning.
Finally I enclose a CD of a special
programme which was broadcast on Radio Four and shows only too well that
we fully understand the reality of life in Baghdad and have tried to
make our listeners aware of it.
I appreciate the fact that your
letter was private. I, too, have no intention of making this reply
public.
Best wishes
Greg Dyke
