BBC governors to discuss dossier row
BBC governors are to hold a special meeting with management to discuss the row about the corporation's reporting of the government's case for war in Iraq.
Critical Point 1:
Governors asked for the briefing on Sunday ahead of Monday's report by the Commons foreign affairs select committee into the decision to attack Iraq.
They will discuss the attack by Downing Street's director of communications Alastair Campbell on the BBC report that quoted a senior intelligence official who said the government's first intelligence dossier on Iraq's weapons' capability was "sexed up".
Critical Point 2:
There was speculation on Friday by papers that the select committee would clear Mr Campbell of having added a claim in the dossier that Saddam Hussein's regime could launch a strike using biological or chemical weapons within 45 minutes.
Mr Campbell has accused the BBC of lying and denied he inserted the claim into the dossier.
But the BBC has refused to apologise for the report by defence correspondent Andrew Gilligan, despite Mr Campbell's demands for one.
The BBC has been a voice in the wilderness the past two years while, in the US, corporate media have mindlessly parroted the party line (Nikita Khrushchev’s granddaughter even compared news here to that in the old USSR during Brezhnev). Let’s hope the BBC Governors stand behind the integrity of their reporters’ coverage. If they don’t, one of few remaining places where journalistic standards are still maintained will be seriously compromised.
9:12:15 AM 
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