Report: Dyke Demands BBC Documents

LONDON, December 20: According to Media Guardian, Greg Dyke
will today demand that the BBC publish documents explaining why he was fired as
its director-general in January 2004.

Dyke’s resignation, which came a day after then chairman
Gavyn Davies stepped down, happened in the midst of the fallout of the Hutton
Report. The report followed accusations by BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan that
the British government “sexed up” its dossier on Iraq to build the case to go
to war. Among Gilligan’s sources was Minister of Defence employee and former U.N.
weapons inspector David Kelly, who committed suicide following the ensuing
political scandal. The Hutton Inquiry was ordered to look into the
circumstances surrounding Kelly’s death. The report lashed out at the BBC,
calling its editorial systems "defective" and criticizing the public
broadcaster's board of governors for a lack of independence.

Today, Dyke is due to appear at the Information Tribunal,
arguing that the BBC should disclose the minutes of a meeting of the
corporation's governors in which it was decided that Dyke should be ousted. The
former BBC chief, today the chairman of HIT Entertainment, is supporting a
freedom of information application by the Guardian and Heather Brooke, an open government campaigner,
for copies of the minutes.