BBC says it was pressured to change tone of war coverage

LONDON -- The chairman of the BBC's board of governors on Sunday accused the government of trying to pressure the broadcaster to change the tone of its coverage of the Iraq war's fallout.

The British Broadcasting Corp. and Prime Minister Tony Blair's government have been locked for weeks in a nasty spat over a story in which the BBC quoted an unidentified official accusing the government of exaggerating intelligence on Iraqi weapons to support its case for going to war.

The government vehemently denies that accusation. The debate intensified with the suicide of Ministry of Defense scientist David Kelly, whom the BBC identified after his death as the main source of the story by journalist Andrew Gilligan.

Gavyn Davies, chairman of the BBC's board of governors, wrote in The Sunday Telegraph newspaper that unidentified officials had been quoted in media reports as threatening to cut the broadcaster's funding, remove its director general and rewrite its charter.

"Our integrity is under attack and we are chastised for taking a different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its supporters," Davies wrote.

"Because we have had the temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for 80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will 'bring the BBC to heel,"' he continued.

Davies wrote that during the war in Iraq, the BBC "was under constant attack" from politicians for coverage they perceived as anti-war. He added that the network "upheld its traditional attachment to impartiality and the truth under almost intolerable pressures."

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said Friday that she would "consider very carefully" any recommendations from an independent inquiry into Kelly's death when she conducts a long-planned review of the BBC's funding and charter later this year.

Jowell insisted Sunday the dispute between the government and the BBC would not affect her decisions.

"We have made it plain throughout that we will uphold completely the independence of the BBC," she said. "We entirely reject the BBC chairman's attempt to confuse our desire to correct the original story by Mr. Gilligan with an attack on the BBC's independence."

The BBC is funded by an annual $185 fee paid by everyone who owns a television, but it is an independent outlet that prides itself on impartial reporting.

Meanwhile, government criticism of the broadcaster over the Iraqi weapons affair continued.

Leader of the House of Commons Peter Hain wrote in The Independent on Sunday newspaper that the BBC had hyped its findings "to ensure the greatest embarrassment (to the government), in the best traditions of the tabloids, rather than a public service broadcaster."

Kelly, a former United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq and a top government adviser, testified to a parliamentary committee days before his death that while he met privately with Gilligan he did not believe he was the journalist's main source.