| "Dr Kelly's death was a tragedy
for his family and again we offer our sincere condolences to
them."
"We note Lord Hutton's criticisms of the BBC. Many of
these relate to mistakes which the BBC has already acknowledged
in its submissions to the inquiry and for which we have already
expressed regret.
"Thanks to the process of Lord Hutton's inquiry we now
know more about the evolution of the September dossier.
"The BBC does accept that certain key allegations reported
by Andrew Gilligan on the Today programme on May 29 last year
were wrong and we apologise for them.
"However, we would point out again that 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.
"The dossier raised issues of great public interest.
Dr Kelly was a credible source. Provided his allegations were
reported accurately, the public in a modern democracy had
a right to be made aware of them. The greater part of the
BBC's coverage of the dossier fulfilled this purpose.
"We have already taken steps to improve our procedures.
A new complaints and compliance structure has been put in
place under the deputy director-general. We have a new set
of rules for BBC journalists who wish to write for newspapers
or magazines and we will be publishing revised editorial guidelines.
"There are other findings in the report, including those
about the dossier, which we will consider carefully.
"The BBC governors will be meeting formally tomorrow
and will give further consideration to Lord Hutton's report.
No further comment will be made until after that meeting."
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