In
his 328-page report, Lord Hutton was critical of the British
Broadcasting Corporation, saying not only that Gilligan's report was
"unfounded," but also that the system for senior editors to
check it was "defective", reported Reuters news agency.
"I
considered the allegation was unfounded as it would be understood by
those who heard the broadcast to mean that the dossier had been
embellished with intelligence known or believed to be false or
unreliable, which had not been the case.
"Mr.
Gilligan was allowed to broadcast his report at 6:07 am without
editors having seen a script of what he was going to say and having
considered whether it should be approved," Hutton concluded after
nearly four months he took to write up his findings.
"The
allegation reported by Mr. Gilligan on May 29, 2003 -- that the
government knew the 45-minute claim was wrong before the government
decided to put it in the dossier -- was an allegation which was
unfounded," Hutton concluded.
He
also reprimanded the BBC's board of governors, chaired by Gavyn
Davies, saying it should have conducted more detailed investigations
into Gilligan's report and that the newscaster's management was
"at fault" in the case.
"If
they had done this, they probably would have discovered that the notes
did not support the allegation...and the governors should then have
questioned whether it was right for the BBC to maintain that it was in
the public interest to broadcast the allegation in Mr. Gilligan's
report," Reuters quoted Hutton as saying.
Lord
Hutton also said he had decided that the question of whether
intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons justified going to war fell
outside the scope of his inquiry.
Reuters
said that the report will strengthen BBC critics who say the
broadcaster should fall under the oversight of media regulator Ofcom.
Ofcom
is the regulator for the U.K. communications industries, with
responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and
wireless communications services.
