Greg Dyke, the head of the BBC, resigned on Thursday after a judicial inquiry harshly criticised the network’s journalistic standards.
On Wednesday, Judge Lord Hutton criticised the 81-year-old BBC network for an ”unfounded” report it broadcast last year accusing the government of ”sexing up” a prewar dossier about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction with information it knew was wrong.
Gavyn Davies, the chairperson of the BBC’s board of governors, resigned in the wake of the report — the first time a top executive at the broadcaster has stepped down in a dispute over reporting.
Davies oversaw the board of governors, but was not involved in the day-to-day running of the network.
Dyke’s resignation one day later came after the network’s board of governors conducted an emergency meeting to discuss the findings of the Hutton inquiry.
”I hope that a line can now be drawn under this whole episode,” Dyke said outside AP’s central broadcasting house in London after he resigned. ”Throughout this whole affair my sole aim as director general of the BBC has been to defend our editorial independence.”
Although Dyke was director general and editor-in-chief of the BBC, he was not a journalist and did not direct its news operations. — Sapa-AP