BBC Accuses Blair's Aide of Attacking BBC's Credibility

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 29, 2003

BBC Accuses Blair's Aide of Attacking BBC's Credibility

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BBC Chairman Gavyn Davies on Thursday accused British Prime Minster Tony Blair's top aide of launching "inappropriate" attacks on BBC's credibility due to a BBC report in May claiming Downing Street had "sexed up" its case for Iraq war.

The comments by Blair's press chief Alastair Campbell accusing that BBC report of lying had been excessive, Davies told a judicial inquiry, led by Lord Hutton, into the death of arms expert David Kelly, the source for the BBC claim.

Campbell's appearance before a parliamentary committee on June 25, when he accused the BBC of lying, had prompted a "major escalation" of the row over the government's case for war, said Davies.

"I felt this was an extraordinary moment, almost unprecedented, an unprecedented attack on the BBC to be mounted by the head of communications at Downing Street," the head of the corporation's board of governors said.

"I took this as an attack on the integrity of the BBC and the impartiality of the BBC," he said.

"The attack on the BBC was so encompassing and so continuous it really was for the board of governors to stand up and say that parts of this attack were inappropriate," he told the inquiry.

Earlier on Thursday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the inquiry that he would have been forced to resign if the BBC claims that his government had "sexed up" evidence over Iraq's banned weapons in last September's dossier had been true.

"This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which...if true would have merited my resignation," he said, challenging the worst crisis in his six-year rule sparked by the Kelly affair.

The dossier contained a key claim that Iraq would unleash weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within 45 minutes.

Kelly, a former UN arms inspector in Iraq, died with a slit wrist on July 18, days after his name was leaked to the public as the BBC source.

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