BBC Director General Greg Dyke resigns

Published on Thursday 29 January 2004 00:00

Greg Dyke, the Director General of the BBC, has resigned following the government’s mounting pressure in the wake of the Hutton report.

This morning No 10 demanded a fresh apology from the BBC following Mr Dyke's robust response last night to Lord Hutton's conclusion that the broadcaster's system of editorial control was "defective."

But this afternoon Mr Dyke made a statement outside Broadcasting House saying "throughout this affair my sole aim has been to defend the integrity of the BBC. You have to believe a line has now been drawn under this."

Gavyn Davies, Chairman of the BBC's Board of Governors, resigned last night after Lord Hutton singled out the Board's management of the conflict with the government for severe criticism.

Mr Davies reacted with disbelief to Hutton's damaging attack on the BBC's credibility in his resignation speech yesterday, saying that Hutton's conclusions were "bald" and could be a threat to the freedom of the press.

Greg Dyke stated that the BBC had already apologised for errors within the management system after Hutton found fault with the accuracy of Andrew Gilligan’s report into the government’s September 2002 Iraq dossier.

"At no stage in the last eight months have we accused the Prime Minister of lying and we have said this publicly on several occasions", he said.

However the government was not satisfied with Mr Dyke’s response, describing it as "not good enough", and demanded further apologies from the organisation.

Mr Blair’s spokesman said: "We still want an apology. The BBC should apologise for broadcasting a false allegation which was unfounded. In terms of what Greg Dyke said yesterday it does not amount to a considered statement from the BBC governors and that’s what we need."