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"I am today resigning from the BBC. I and everyone else
involved here have for five months admitted the mistakes we
made. We deserved criticism. Some of my story was wrong, as
I admitted at the inquiry, and I again apologise for it. My
departure is at my own initiative. But the BBC collectively
has been the victim of a grave injustice."
"If Lord Hutton had fairly considered the evidence he
heard, he would have concluded that most of my story was right.
The Government did sex up the dossier, transforming possibilities
and probabilities into certainties, removing vital caveats;
the 45-minute claim was the ‘classic example’ of this; and
many in the intelligence services, including the leading expert
in WMD, were unhappy about it. Thanks to what David Kelly
told me and other BBC journalists, in very similar terms,
we know now what we did not know before. I pay tribute to
David Kelly.
"This report casts a chill over all journalism, not
just the BBC’s. It seeks to hold reporters, with all the difficulties
they face, to a standard that it does not appear to demand
of, for instance, Government dossiers. I am comforted by the
fact that public opinion appears to disagree with Lord Hutton
and I hope this will strengthen the resolve of the BBC.
"The report has imposed on the BBC a punishment far
out of proportion to its or my mistakes, which were honest
ones. It is hard to believe now that this all stems from two
flawed sentences in one unscripted early-morning interview,
never repeated, when I said that the Government 'probably
knew' that the 45-minute figure was wrong.
"I attributed this to David Kelly; it was in fact an
inference of mine. It has been claimed that this was the charge
which went round the world, but a cuttings check shows that
it did not even get as far as a single Fleet Street newspaper.
Nor did the Government mention it in its first three letters
of complaint.
"In my view, this helps explain why neither I nor the
BBC focused on this phrase as we should have. I explicitly
made clear, in my broadcasts, that the 45-minute point was
based on real intelligence. I repeatedly said also that I
did not accuse the Government of fabrication, but of exaggeration.
I stand by that charge, and it will not go away.
"In Greg Dyke the BBC has lost its finest director general
for a generation. He should not have resigned, and I am extremely
sorry to see him go.
"I would like to thank the BBC for its support throughout
the extraordinary and terrible ordeal that has been the last
seven months. It has defended the right to investigate and
report accurately on matters about which the public has a
right to know. Save for the admissions I and the BBC have
made, my reporting on the dossier’s compilation fulfilled
this purpose.
"I love the BBC and I am resigning because I want to
protect it. I accept my part in the crisis which has befallen
the organisation. But a greater part has been played by the
unbalanced judgments of Lord Hutton."
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