BBC chairman 'considering his position'

BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is said to be considering his position after Lord Hutton criticised the BBC in his long awaited report into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

The corporation has flatly denied rumours sweeping Westminster that he has resigned, but one senior insider said the mood at the BBC was "very grim".

ITV News today cut into its normal programming to preface its planned live broadcast of Lord Hutton's statement to say Mr Davies was "considering his position" after the board of governors was heavily criticised in the Hutton report for failing to demand a detailed investigation into the veracity of Andrew Gilligan's report on Radio 4's Today programme.

The future of the BBC director general, Greg Dyke, and the head of news, Richard Sambrook, are also looking shaky after Lord Hutton apparently criticised the editorial system in operation as "defective".

The BBC chairman was this morning locked in talks with Mr Dyke and Mr Sambrook working on a response to Lord Hutton's findings, which leaked reports said would castigate them for permitting an editorial system at the BBC that was "defective."

Mr Davies controversially backed Gilligan at a crucial emergency meeting of the corporation's governors on July 6, despite admitting reservations about his Today report at the same meeting.

Minutes of the crucial meeting later released to the Hutton inquiry showed there was also dissension among governors over whether to back the Today report immediately or order an internal inquiry.

The minutes also revealed that Mr Davies thought it vital the governors should seize the initiative and issue a statement in support of the BBC in order to pre-empt a report of the foreign affairs committee the following day.

He was anxious to get a statement out to the press by 9pm that Sunday, July 6, because he felt the BBC's position would be overshadowed by the FAC report which came out on July 7.

The BBC governors were accused by No 10 of backing Gilligan without being in possession of the full facts.

In their statement on July 6 they also called Dr Kelly a "senior intelligence source", which they later accepted was not the case.

Later, further minutes from the meeting revealed Mr Davies's own doubts. "Repeatedly, I think, John Humphrys' tone of voice is inappropriate," he said of the Today anchor's two-way conversation with Gilligan.

The BBC chairman was also concerned about Gilligan's article in the Mail on Sunday, which Mr Blair later said had given the row "rocket boosters".

But he buried his concern, fearing the government would use any sign of weakness to its advantage. "If you say it tonight, you are disowning Andrew Gilligan," he warned his fellow governors.

During evidence to the inquiry Mr Davies also criticised Gilligan for emailing a Liberal Democrat MP on the foreign affairs select committee to suggest possible questions to ask Dr Kelly. But he broadly stood up for the BBC and its right to broadcast the story.

The BBC had been determined not to bend an inch in the row of the dossier because of "intolerable" pressure from No 10, he told Lord Hutton.

Even before the Hutton inquiry began, Mr Davies wrote a robust defence of the BBC's conduct in the Sunday Telegraph and accused the government of using the affair as a stick with which to beat the corporation ahead of the charter review debate.

"Alastair Campbell's recent attack on the BBC was not mainly about Andrew Gilligan's story on the Today programme, but amounted to a full-frontal assault on the motivation, skill and professionalism of the entire news operation," he wrote.

Too bad the UK does not have a tradition of hari-kiri like they do in Japan. The BBC could only benefit from its application.

However, hari-kiri presupposes the existence of a sense of honor and duty, none of which exist in the BBC.

3 posted on 01/28/2004 7:16:35 AM PST by jimkress (Save America from the tyranny of Republican/Democrat hegemony. Support the Constitution Party.)

"BBC chairman Gavyn Davies is said to be considering his position after Lord Hutton criticised the BBC in his long awaited report into the death of weapons expert David Kelly."

Guess he was waiting for the definition of 'is' to be determined.

Too late for this to be considered an 'honorable' decision.

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