Sunday Telegraph BBC chiefs vent anger on 'devious' Gilligan By Chris Hastings, Media Correspondent February 1, 2004
Andrew Gilligan, the BBC journalist whose flawed reporting has plunged the corporation into the worst crisis in its 77-year history, was facing disciplinary action before he resigned. Senior BBC managers yesterday rounded on what they called the devious tactics of the former defence and diplomatic correspondent for Radio 4's Today programme, blaming him for bringing the corporation to its knees. They said that Gilligan's failure to own up to his mistakes at the earliest opportunity set in train the events leading to the suicide of Dr David Kelly, the Hutton inquiry and the resignations last week of Greg Dyke, the BBC director-general, and Gavyn Davies, its chairman. The executives had stood by Gilligan's original stories about the Government having deliberately misled the public over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction after he assured them they were correct. They expressed feelings of betrayal and anger over the way he tried to defend his broadcasts and the manner of his departure. A senior manager said: "It is certain the ongoing BBC inquiry into this whole affair would have resulted in disciplinary action against Mr Gilligan. Whatever people think about his story, there was no way they could turn a blind eye to his attempts to save his own skin." Gilligan for months insisted to BBC executives that his reporting had been a fair and accurate account of what Dr Kelly told him during their fateful meeting in May 2003. One said: "When Richard Sambrook [the head of news] investigated and saw that his notes of the meeting were inadequate, Gilligan said, 'You know what notes are ... they are only partial'. He then gave his word that all his reports were accurate." BBC executives learned that was incorrect only when Gilligan appeared before the Hutton inquiry on September 17, 2003, and made an unambiguous apology for his infamous 6.07am Today broadcast on May 29, 2003. In this report, he accused the Government of inserting intelligence into the Iraq dossier which it "probably knew" to be wrong. One executive said yesterday: "He should have been more forthcoming about the weaknesses in his story. He left that far too late. He was also wrong to 'out' David Kelly as a source for another report on weapons of mass destruction. "The disciplinary procedure could have resulted in him being sacked. At the very least he would have been seriously reprimanded for his shortcomings." Gilligan resigned from the BBC at 6pm on Friday. Executives made clear to him that he could not return to Today and no other position was offered. One colleague said: "He realised he had finally come to the end of the road." The BBC refused to pay Gilligan, who earned about £55,000 a year, the severance deal he would normally have been entitled to, because he failed to give an undertaking not to discuss the corporation's affairs in public. It is understood that he had negotiated to sell his story to a Sunday newspaper prior to a final meeting with BBC managers. Gilligan chose to release news of his departure through the Press Association rather than to the BBC. A former colleague said: "He remained a little s- to the end." A senior manager said: "The BBC is furious that he won't abide by his contract and keep quiet at least for the time being. There is very little they can do about it. Stopping his money was the only course of action left open to them. They don't want to pursue him any further. They just want him to go." Mr Dyke, who resigned from the corporation on Thursday, joined the attack on Gilligan. He told friends of his grave concerns about the way Gilligan broadcast his original report. He told one: "The sad thing about all of this is that the proper editorial processes were followed in the run-up to the original broadcast. It's just that he [Gilligan] screwed it up on the 6.07am broadcast. "If you listen again to the 6.07 it's a rubbishy piece of journalism. He should have been in the office but he wasn't and he messed it up. That was OK while he continued to tell us, 'This is what this man told me' ... it was when he deviated from that." Another senior executive said: "Until he 'fessed up to Hutton we hadn't heard a dickie bird from him, still less an apology." A defiant Gilligan insisted that he could not be held responsible for the downfall of Mr Dyke. He told the Telegraph: "Ninety per cent of my original story was right. I have admitted that the 6.07 broadcast was a bad idea. "No one has ever told me about disciplinary action. That is not the reason why I left the BBC. I had my own reasons for going and I wanted to go quickly. "By Friday morning I could not see myself having a useful role at the BBC. I knew I had to go and the only question was whether I should resign with dignity or try clinging on. I did not want to stay and be regarded as the man who brought down Greg Dyke. Greg Dyke brought down Greg Dyke." As the fallout from the Hutton report continued, Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair's former communications director, warned BBC journalists protesting over the resignations of Mr Dyke and Mr Davies that they were in danger of looking "a bit stupid". The staff placed a full page advertisement praising Mr Dyke in The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "The [6.07] broadcast should never have been broadcast," he said. "It is not true to say it was only one report. It went round the world many times."
