Posted on 07/22/2003 7:56:24 AM PDT by liberallarry
BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan had a second conversation with David Kelly after their initial May 22 meeting to confirm the quotes he could use, the inquiry into the circumstances of the microbiologist's death will be told.
The BBC's evidence to Lord Hutton's investigation will reveal Gilligan went back to Dr Kelly to check which parts of their initial conversation to use before broadcasting his May 29 report on BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Gilligan is said to have made contemporaneous notes about his May 22 meeting with Dr Kelly in a central London hotel on an electronic device, which has been kept under lock and key by the BBC since its row with the government over the Iraq dossier erupted.
These notes and Gilligan's subsequent conversation with Dr Kelly formed the basis for his May 29 story, which sparked the dispute.
This evidence will be used to counter accusations Gilligan over-hyped or misrepresented what Dr Kelly had told him.
His May 29 story featured taped quotes from Dr Kelly, voiced by an actor, who said of last September's Iraq dossier: "It was transformed in the week before it was published to make it sexier."
It has emerged Dr Kelly also spoke to two other BBC journalists, Newsnight's Susan Watts and the Ten O'Clock News' Gavin Hewitt, around the time of Gilligan's May 29 story.
The BBC has promised to provide Lord Hutton's inquiry with contemporaneous notes from all the journalists who spoke to Dr Kelly on the issue of the government's dossiers of evidence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme
But did he check them with the Skipper too?
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