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Observer: North Korea and the BBC's evidence Feb 16 2004 04:00Has the BBC got it wrong again, in another part of the axis of evil? Weeks after its two top bosses resigned over a discredited report on Iraq, the British broadcaster is facing scrutiny over a documentary about North Korea.The programme grabbed headlines around the world this month with its claim that the communist state was testing chemical weapons on prisoners in secret gas chambers. However, debate rages in Seoul about the authenticity of the BBC's evidence.Central to the case is an official-looking North Korean document referring to the chemical...

Newsweek’s Michael Isikoff suggested to Dennis Miller on Monday night that it’s “a little odd” that the finding that a BBC reporter “got something wrong,” in claiming British Prime Minister Tony Blair knew statements about WMD in Iraq were inaccurate, led to a situation in which “the head of the BBC has to resign as a consequence,” yet neither Blair or George Bush has resigned despite the consensus that they “were wrong” on WMD in Iraq. Karen Tumulty, Isikoff’s news magazine colleague at the competing Time magazine was equally eager to divert attention from the BBC’s biased reporting. Lord Hutton...

BBC apologises to Blair John Plunkett Thursday January 29, 2004 The BBC has offered an unreserved apology to the government over the way it handled its complaint about the Andrew Gilligan story, which Tony Blair immediately accepted, adding the government could now "draw a line" under the whole episode. The BBC acting chairman, Lord Ryder, issued the statement on behalf of the board of governors, which also confirmed the appointment of Greg Dyke's recently appointed deputy, Mark Byford, as acting director general. Lord Ryder said the Hutton report had highlighted "serious defects in the corporation's processes". "On behalf of the...

Hutton: Fleet Street's reaction Journalists from Britain's national press give their initial responses to the Hutton Inquiry report.Michael White, political editor, Guardian: Lord Hutton has been very severe on the BBC, rightly so in many respects in my view. But he has been overly generous to the government machine and some individuals within it. Any 72-year-old who pronounces the word "hotel" without an "h" is a very establishment figure. Hamish McDonnell, political editor, Scotsman: It's not quite what we expected. It's surprised a lot of people in the way the government got off the hook while the BBC has taken...

Bad Journalism, IPv6, and the BBCBy: Andrew McLaughlinFrom CircleID IP Address & BeyondNovember 07, 2003 Here's a good way to frighten yourself: Learn about something, and then read what the press writes about it. It's astonishing how often flatly untrue things get reported as facts. I first observed this back in 1997 when I was a Democratic lawyer in the U.S. House of Representatives working on the (rather ridiculous) campaign finance investigation. (The investigating committee's conspiracy-minded chairman was famous for shotgunning pumpkins in his backyard in order to figure out exactly how Hillary snuffed Vince Foster). The investigation was heavily...

BBC appoints man to monitor 'pro-Arab bias' By Tom Leonard, Media Editor (Filed: 11/11/2003) The BBC has appointed a "Middle East policeman" to oversee its coverage of the region amid mounting allegations of anti-Israeli bias. Malcolm Balen, a former editor of the Nine O'Clock News, has been recruited in an attempt to improve the corporation's reporting of the Middle East and its relationship with the main political players. Mr Balen, who left the BBC three years ago, will work full-time with the official title of "senior editorial adviser". It is the first time the corporation has made such an appointment....

BBC on the back foot(Filed: 18/09/2003)From a journalistic point of view, it is difficult not to pity the BBC news managers. They are caught in an editorial nightmare. Having backed their correspondent Andrew Gilligan at the highest level, they now find his credibility and theirs unravelling in the full gaze of a public inquiry. Yesterday, Gilligan was seen to retreat on some of the most fundamental points of his contentious story. He was bound to accept a series of criticisms from Jonathan Sumption QC, acting for the Government, of the wording of his reports, his procedures in keeping notes and...

Gilligan apologises for errors but MoD man is defiantBy Sandra Laville and Neil Tweedie (Filed: 18/09/2003) Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter, admitted a series of errors yesterday in his report claiming that the Government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.   Andrew Gilligan leaves home for the Hutton Inquiry yesterday Under cross-examination by three QCs at the Hutton Inquiry, Gilligan apologised for his e-mail to members of the Commons foreign affairs committee, which was seen by some as an attempt to influence MPs in his favour. "I was quite wrong to send it . . ....

LONDON - A British Broadcasting Corp. reporter — and not a top government weapons adviser — was the one who suggested during an interview that a top aide of Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites) was behind an exaggeration of the threat posed by Iraq (news - web sites), an arms expert said Thursday. That testimony by Olivia Bosch contradicted statements by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan, who said adviser David Kelly suggested the name of key Blair aide Alastair Campbell without prompting. Bosch, testifying at an inquiry into Kelly's apparent suicide, said Kelly told her during a phone...

September 1, 2003 Dispute Over Arms Dossier Wounds the BBCBy WARREN HOGE ONDON, Aug. 31 — The BBC, the world's largest and best known public service broadcaster, sends out millions of words daily, but its long-nurtured reputation for accuracy, fairness and objectivity is being challenged for just 20 of them. On May 29, the defense correspondent of its morning radio news show, Andrew Gilligan, said that the government had inserted into its dossier of intelligence on Iraqi arms the claim that Saddam Hussein had biological and chemical weapons that were deployable within 45 minutes. ReutersGavyn Davies, the BBC chairman, has...

BBC reporters reveal Kelly's unease at No. 10 spinBy FT StaffPublished: August 13 2003 12:44 | Last Updated: August 13 2003 14:40 Two BBC reporters have told the judicial inquiry into the death of David Kelly of the unease expressed by the weapons scientist over the level of  Downing Street "spin" involved in compiling a dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destructionA taped telephone conversation submitted as evidence by Susan Watts, science editor of the BBC programme Newsnight , appears to implicate No. 10's press office in "sexing up" the government's case for war.Gavin Hewitt, a special correspondent for the BBC Ten O'Clock News, also said...

Gilligan damned by evidence of colleaguesBy Bob Sherwood, Legal CorrespondentPublished: August 12 2003 20:55 | Last Updated: August 12 2003 20:55 Andrew Gilligan has long been under no illusion that he has critics. But when he appeared before Lord Hutton on Tuesday could not have expected to be damned, not by a practitioner of the Downing Street black arts, but by his BBC colleagues.Initially the journalist appeared to be surviving the scrutiny. He mounted a calm defence of his reporting on the second day of the judicial inquiry into why David Kelly, the weapons expert, apparently committed suicide after being...

BBC reporter refused to name Kelly (Filed: 13/08/2003) A BBC journalist has told the inquiry into David Kelly's death how she was pressurised by her managers to name the weapons expert as the source of her reports on No 10's Iraq dossier. Susan Watts: evidence Susan Watts, the science editor of BBC2's Newsnight, said that her bosses had wanted her to back up a report by Andrew Gilligan on Radio 4's Today programme that Downing Street had "sexed up" the dossier. But Miss Watts - who ran two stories on Newsnight based on conversations with Dr Kelly - said she...

Full text of Telegraph group owner Lord Black's letter, published in Saturday's Daily Telegraph Janet Daley and Eoghan Harris's exposés of the BBC and Boris Johnson's whitewash of it (Opinion, July 23, July 23 and July 24), highlight the greatest problem raised by the current controversy. The BBC is pathologically hostile to the government and official opposition, most British institutions, American policy in almost every field, Israel, moderation in Ireland, all western religions, and most manifestations of the free market economy. It benefits from an iniquitous tax, abuses its position commercially, has shredded its formal obligation to separate comment from...