Dyke says he was ‘effectively sacked’

GREG DYKE was effectively sacked as BBC director-general in the wake of the Hutton Report, he revealed yesterday.

And he also said the entire BBC board of governors considered quitting after Lord Hutton's devastating criticisms of the corporation.

Mr Dyke said he told the governors he could not continue his job unless he had their confidence and they decided he should go.

He said he would need their backing to stay on.

"At that stage I left the room," he said.

"An hour or so later I discovered they decided to suggest I leave. I had offered it, that was it."

Speaking on BBC1's Breakfast with Frost he said he had urged the governors not to jump ship as it would leave the corporation with no one in charge.

"(The governors) discussed whether they should all go. I urged them not to all go, you can't have a BBC with nobody there."

Mr Dyke also renewed his criticism of the Government and Lord Hutton.

In an interview in The Sunday Times he accused Downing Street of "systematically bullying" and intimidating the corporation over its coverage of Iraq war.

And he released a letter he had written to British Prime Minister Tony Blair showing the feuding between the Government and the BBC preceded the report that sparked the Hutton Inquiry.

He told the BBC: "What Alastair Campbell was clearly trying to do was intimidate the BBC so that we reported what he wanted us to report as opposed to what we wanted to report."

Mr Dyke said the BBC had to resist that pressure.

"The moment the BBC starts kow-towing to government, you might as well close it down."

He said the Government was entitled to try to pressurise the BBC but the corporation was equally justified in telling it "where to get off".

Relations were always strained between the BBC and the Government at a time of war. But in the case of Iraq it was even more difficult because the country was divided over it.

He also criticised Lord Hutton saying he did not understand the law.

Lord Hutton had "got it wrong" because he had argued the law did not allow the BBC to broadcast a story revealing Dr Kelly's concerns.

He said that was "a bit of a worry given that he was the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland".

"One would expect him to understand the law," he said.

"If he is doing a media case he should go and read media law. He has got the law wrong."

He said if Lord Hutton's interpretation of the law was allowed to stand it would have "incredibly serious" implications for the media in dealing with whistle-blowers.

Mr Dyke also cast fresh doubt on the Government's dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.