The UK Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell Sunday sought to extinguish the still-incendiary row between the British government and the BBC after the corporation's chairman, Gavyn Davies, accused ministers of seeking to destroy its independence "out of revenge."
Two days after she appeared to suggest the opposite, Jowell was forced to state there was "absolutely no question" of the decision to renew the BBC's charter being influenced by the fighting sparked by the Radio 4 Today program's report that the government "sexed up" its dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and inflamed by the suicide of weapons expert David Kelly, the source of the story.
She also offered a barely coded rebuke to the ambitious Cabinet minister Peter Hain, who Sunday accused the BBC of "tabloid journalism," and the former minister Peter Mandelson, who launched a similar attack a week ago.
In comments that could apply to all three men, she insisted: "This is a wholly unnecessary row and I think that everybody should ... remember that Kelly's funeral has not yet taken place, and there is a case for restraint and respect for his family at a time they need space to grieve. Many people will find this completely uninvited row distasteful in the context of the family's grief."
Her rebuke, made on BBC Radio 4's World at One program and reiterated in a strongly worded statement in which she accused Davies of "inflaming" the situation, came as the BBC prepared to face detailed scrutiny of the weaker aspects of its Iraq dossier case.
Kevin Marsh, the Today program editor, personally approved his reporter Andrew Gilligan's subsequent article in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, which accused Alastair Campbell, the prime minister's director of communications, of "sexing up" the dossier.
Three days earlier, on the Today program, Gilligan was careful never to mention Campbell by name.
The question of why the BBC changed its position is likely to come up in Lord Hutton's judicial inquiry into the death of Kelly, the weapons expert who was the source for at least four BBC journalists: Gilligan, Susan Watts, Gavin Hewitt, and Jane Corbin.
The corporation said Sunday night that Marsh had approved the inclusion of Campbell's name in Gilligan's Mail on Sunday article because other papers had, by then, linked him to the dossier row. But senior executives admit privately that the newspaper report is the weakest element of their case.
Sunday night, civility briefly flickered between both sides as the BBC welcomed Jowell's reassurance that no "dark motives" would affect its charter renewal, which is due in 2006, and that the government had no desire to undermine the corporation's independence.
Her reassurance came after Davies accused ministers of "political bullying," as he raised concern over speculation that ministers were considering scrapping the independent governors and handing over their powers to the new media regulatory body, Ofcom.
In an article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Davies -- a Labour party donor -- wrote: "Our integrity is under attack and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its supporters. Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will `bring the BBC to heel.'"
Such fury was mirrored by the language of Hain, the leader of the House of Commons, who in an article in the Independent on Sunday's newspaper, claimed that the BBC personified the media's "self-indulgent obsession" with spin to "the absolute extreme."
"With its Gilligan story, first broadcast on May 29, the Today program had `a story, based on one source' and `sexed [it] up' to make it more interesting -- with the seniority of that source also spun to give the report more credibility -- to ensure the greatest embarrassment, in the best traditions of the tabloids, rather than a public service broadcaster," Hain alleged.
But his criticism, which came after Prime Minister Tony Blair called for "restraint" following Kelly's suicide 10 days ago, drew criticism from the opposition.
The Conservative opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith told the Sky News program Sunday with Adam Boulton: "It seems to me that what Peter Hain is talking about is blaming everybody else."
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not