Blair vindicated, BBC criticized on WMDs story

LONDON — A senior appeals judge castigated the British Broadcasting Corp. yesterday for reporting that the government had “sexed up” a dossier on Iraqi weapons, vindicating Prime Minister Tony Blair and prompting the resignation of BBC chief Gavyn Davies.

The 700-page independent report by senior judge Brian Hutton also cleared Mr. Blair and his administration of responsibility in the death of David Kelly, a government expert on Iraqi weapons who committed suicide after being exposed as the source of the BBC story.

The document, so bulky that each copy was delivered in a large cardboard box, hammered the publicly funded national broadcaster’s standards of reporting and — most damagingly — its governors’ decision to support the charges made by a senior radio reporter.

The report said the broadcast bosses had given reporter Andrew Gilligan their backing even though they had failed to check whether his notes matched his on-air reporting.

The prime minister welcomed Mr. Hutton’s “extraordinary, thorough, detailed and clear” report during a crowded sitting of Parliament.

“The allegation that I or anyone else lied to this House or deliberately misled the country by falsifying intelligence on [Iraqi weapons of mass destruction] is itself the real lie,” a clearly relieved and upbeat Mr. Blair said to huge applause.

The Conservatives’ new leader, Michael Howard, had been sharpening his knife in anticipation that the report severely would damage Mr. Blair’s credibility. Instead, Mr. Howard was thrust onto the defensive.

The Conservatives, he said, accepted the report’s conclusions, but he still contended that Mr. Blair had been disingenuous about the way in which the government had made Mr. Kelly’s name public.

Mr. Davies was appointed by Mr. Blair three years ago to chair the BBC’s Board of Governors and, as a highly paid investment banker, had donated funds to the Labor Party. Yet in his role as chief of the BBC, he staunchly defended the organization.

In his resignation statement, Mr. Davies said he had to accept the judge’s findings, just as a sportsman had to accept a referee’s decision, although he questioned some of the specific recommendations.

In particular, he criticized a suggestion that higher management supervise reporters’ texts on stories about high-level machinations, saying that arrangement could compromise freedom of speech and threaten open reporting on the workings of government.

Also at risk of losing his job was the BBC’s chief executive, Greg Dyke, who acknowledged yesterday that “certain key allegations” made in its reporter’s first broadcast were wrong. He apologized for the errors, but said the network never had accused the prime minister of lying.

The BBC carried hours of reaction to the report on its television and radio stations, and its political correspondents said the report had been a “disaster” that would shake up the corporation.

Among the few defending the network yesterday was Andrew Neil, a veteran BBC commentator, who runs two newspapers and presents a nightly political program on BBC television.

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