Mr Greg Dyke, former director general of the BBC, has claimed that the government “tried to kill” Mr Andrew Gilligan, the reporter who broke the story that British intelligence had “sexed up” a dossier on Iraq that sought to justify Britain’s support for US-led invasion of the country.
“The government tried to kill him,” claimed Mr Dyke about Mr Gilligan, who was forced out of his job at the BBC in the wake of the Hutton report that inquired into the death of scientist David Kelly, who was the main source for the broadcaster.
“Andrew Gilligan was a guy of 32; like all those press guys...they’re all a bit odd. He lives on his own and he’s not the most popular man in the world,” Mr Dyke said at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature in Gloucestershire.
“Mr Campbell (Alastair Campbell), the then chief of Communications at 10, Downing Street) hated him. They tried to get him. When he wouldn’t do the deed (a reference to Gilligan apologising), they basically said to us: ‘right, we are going to throw the government’s PR operation against you’. These are not nice people.”...
According to The Independent on Sunday, Mr Dyke said the government twice offered him a deal. “They said — first through Mr Peter Mandelson, former minister and close friend of prime minister Tony Blair, and then through Mr Blair — ‘The deal is this. You’ve got to say the story is wrong and we’ll say you were entitled to broadcast it”. “Well, we didn’t know it was wrong. If you do that analysis now, Mr Gilligan’s story was right. The BBC board will have to stand up for what it believes in.”...
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=8&theme=&usrsess=1&id=57369 
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