Union backs BBC journalist

Strike action in defence of Andrew Gilligan was today threatened by the National Union of Journalists.

Lord Hutton criticised reporter Gilligan, BBC management and governors today as he unveiled his long-awaited report into the death of weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

And he declared there was no “underhand” government strategy to make Dr Kelly’s name public in its battle with the BBC over Mr Gilligan’s claims on Radio 4’s Today programme.

The reporter said the Government had inserted intelligence into its dossier on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction probably knowing it to be wrong or questionable, and had ordered the dossier to be “sexed up”.

Lord Hutton said today that both claims were “unfounded”.

He said the BBC management system which had allowed them to be broadcast in the first place was “defective” and said the corporation’s governors should have investigated the complaints made by the then No 10 communications director Alastair Campbell.

Lord Hutton was reading out a summary of his 328-page report’s findings in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Dr Kelly’s body was found in woodland near his Oxfordshire home on July 18 last year, after he had been identified as the source for Mr Gilligan’s broadcast by the Ministry of Defence which confirmd his identity to reporters who put it to them.

Lord Hutton said Dr Kelly killed himself by cutting his left wrist and his death was hastened by swallowing a “concoction” of pills and a previously unknown heart condition.

The judge said nobody else was involved in his death and said nobody involved in the unfolding controversy could have contemplated or foreseen that he would take his own life.

Lord Hutton said he agreed with an expert who said Dr Kelly would have felt “publicly disgraced” by the controversy before he killed himself.

He said the government did “not behave in a dishonourable, underhand or duplicitous way” in confirming Dr Kelly’s name.

He added that Prime Minister Tony Blair’s comments to reporters on board his plane that he did not authorise the naming of Dr Kelly did not shed any light on his deliberations.

But he did criticise the Ministry of Defence, saying it was at fault for not telling Dr Kelly that his name was to be confirmed to the media.

Lord Hutton added that Dr Kelly was not an easy man to help or to give advice to.

Journalist Mr Gilligan will have the union’s “complete support” if the BBC takes disciplinary action following Lord Hutton’s report, said NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear.

“Our reaction would be to immediately back him, to represent him at any subsequent hearings, and to argue with our members that they should take whatever action is necessary to protect his position.

“This could include industrial action.

“Any investigative journalist performing a public service has to feel that they are being supported.

“The worst thing that could come out of the Hutton report would be for journalists to become timid in the face of government attempts to manipulate the news agenda.”

Mr Dear added: “Whatever failings there were in just one of Andrew’s reports - and he did no fewer than 19 on that first day alone – there has never been any doubt that his story was in the public interest.”