I wondered earlier in the week how this would affect the BBC’s board of governors and whether they would continue to support Andrew Gilligan as strongly as they have done up to now.
This report in Thursday’s Guardian suggests that at least some of the board may not be entirely comfortable with the BBC’s current position.
Plans to publish details of Andrew Gilligan's controversial second appearance before the foreign affairs select committee have been postponed indefinitely following an intervention by the chairman of the BBC.It sounds like the BBC is starting to recognise that Gilligan’s performance in front of the foreign affairs committee was not a resounding success.
The FAC chairman, Labour MP Donald Anderson, today said he had "reluctantly" agreed to shelve plans to publish the transcript following a written request from Gilligan and a "private communication" from the BBC chairman, Gavyn Davies.
Gilligan's request, which only emerged today, appeared to contradict his insistence last week that the transcript of his FAC hearing be published to show what he claimed was the "deliberate misrepresentation" of his evidence by MPs on the committee.
A BBC spokesman said Dr Kelly's death and the setting up of Lord Hutton's inquiry had resulted in a change of heart about the publication of the FAC transcript.The BBC has reasons to be cautious.
We were urging the publication of the transcript as early as possible last Thursday night. Given the intervening tragic events and the setting up of Lord Hutton's inquiry, it is surely more appropriate that this transcript is made available during the course of the inquiry," she added.
The death of Dr Kelly and the circumstances surrounding it have become the subject of a judicial inquiry, a much more serious proceeding than the Commons committee that previously examined the BBC’s story.
The BBC‘s refusal to confirm that Kelly was the source for the story during the committee’s investigation provided a refuge from some difficult questions. There will be no such refuge from the Hutton inquiry.
The report by the foreign affairs committee left the original story in tatters and the BBC looking shoddy. Under heavy questioning Gilligan had seemed to squirm and Donald Anderson, the committee’s chairman, came to regard him as an unreliable witness. The BBC’s governors may well be wondering how well Gilligan will stand up in front of Lord Hutton.
There must be some people at the BBC who wish this story had never been born.
