BBC facing its toughest crisis yet

"People certainly accepted that there had been mistakes, but the report was just so one-sided that people just couldn't believe it," says a BBC reporter who used to work for the same news program as Gilligan. He added that journalists were encouraged by polls suggesting that despite Lord Hutton's conclusions, three times as many people trust the BBC as trust the government. "If you look at the polls and phone-in shows, people who still have their doubts are siding with the Beeb," says the correspondent, who did not wish to be named.

The organization has yet to issue new editorial edicts to tighten up on reporting, sources at the BBC say, though some journalists believe that rigorous checks are being applied to more sensitive stories.

But the new direction for the 80-year-old broadcaster will not become apparent until a new chairman and director general are appointed. The chairman will have to try to soothe the exchanges between government and broadcaster while the director general, as editor in chief, will be responsible for looking at news output and determining what, if anything, should be done. "He has to sort out editorial procedures," says Allen. "He has to do something about live two-ways," the practice of journalists interviewing journalists that spawned Gilligan's remarks.

The BBC has already banned staff and freelancers whose main income comes from the BBC from writing newspaper and magazine columns on current affairs.

But Mr. Allen says that the BBC should not be muted or cowed into submission by government intimidation. "The next big test will be how BBC covers the inquiry into intelligence on weapons of mass destruction," which was unveiled by Blair on Tuesday. "If it falters we will be in trouble."

Some media experts argue, however, that the "Iraq dossier" row should provide an opportunity to pull the BBC back from the aggressive stance it sometimes adopts.

Anthony Smith, a media expert at Oxford University, says that some BBC news output has become too shrill, with some journalists taking the quest for independence too far by searching for material with which to pummel the government. "They had projected a model of politics that was wrong, a model that suggested all politicians are crooks, and they are not," he says. "Something has gone wrong with the way it operates and it's the responsibility of the director general to put it right."

Matters are complicated by a review of the BBC's charter, due in 2006. The BBC is funded by a $200 fee paid by everyone with a color television, and this and other aspects of its status could be up for discussion. One post-Hutton poll found that 56 percent of people thought they should no longer have to pay a license fee. Removing the fee would force the BBC to adopt a new commercial model that many fear would be to the detriment of its original mission: to inform, educate, and entertain.

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell said that Lord Hutton's conclusions will impact the charter renewal, though she also stressed that "a BBC that is nobody's lapdog, that challenges government and raises debate - that is in all our interests."

Page: 1 | 2