Gilligan, Kelly and the modern media

By Torin Douglas BBC media correspondent

Lord Hutton has been given a vivid picture of the workings of the media - and particularly the BBC - in these days of 24-hour broadcasting, spin doctors, claims and rapid rebuttals.

Dr Kelly was said to be a man at ease with journalists

The Iraq dossiers story began with a meeting at the Charing Cross Hotel between the journalist Andrew Gilligan and his source Dr Kelly, over soft drinks charged on a BBC expense account.

Mr Gilligan said the weapons expert, unlike some government officials, was comfortable talking to journalists and understood the concept of unattributable briefings, for which he would not be revealed as the source.

He said Dr Kelly had agreed which quotes could be used.

When it was pointed out to the journalist that his version of events differed greatly from Dr Kelly's, Mr Gilligan said he understood why an employee of the Ministry of Defence would have found it difficult to admit what he'd done to a committee of MPs.

Mr Gilligan told the inquiry he checked the story in several ways, putting it to two senior government sources who didn't deny it - one encouraged him to keep digging.

He spoke to other intelligence experts, and checked cuttings, government documents and Hansard.

Andrew Gilligan stood by his story

Later it emerged that Dr Kelly had made similar comments to two other BBC journalists.

Giving evidence after Mr Gilligan, Susan Watts, the science editor of Newsnight, said the weapons expert had named Alastair Campbell to her in connection with the "45-minute" claim in the Iraq dossier.

After the story broke, Mr Gilligan revealed, he made no fewer than 19 broadcasts on various BBC radio and TV programmes.

It was in one live and unscripted interview that he used wording which he admitted had been less than perfect and could have been interpreted as suggesting the government had lied.

He said that hadn't been his intention, he'd not used that wording again - and it did not reflect the main coverage of the story across the BBC.

But it had prompted a fierce denial from Downing Street - which later escalated into the huge row between the government and the BBC.

Close questioning

And that, Lord Hutton heard, had led to an e-mail from the editor of the Today programme to another BBC executive, saying "a good piece of investigative journalism" had been marred by flawed reporting and loose use of language.

That e-mail - revealing unease within the BBC over the Gilligan report - is likely to lead to close questioning of the BBC's director of news Richard Sambrook and its chairman Gavyn Davies when they give evidence to the inquiry.

The BBC has refused to back down over the story and its governors defended it after a special meeting on 7 July.

In a statement, they said they were satisfied it had been in the public interest to broadcast the story and that BBC journalists and managers had sought to maintain impartiality and accuracy.