BBC staff advert in The Daily Telegraph

Today BBC staff placed a full page advert in The Daily Telegraph to assert their belief in the continued independence of the BBC, and to pay tribute to the work of Greg Dyke whilst he was Director-General. The full text of the advert was as follows:

The independence of the BBC

The following statement is from BBC employees, presenters, reporters and contributors. It was paid for by them personally, not the BBC itself

Greg Dyke stood for brave, independent and rigorous BBC journalism that was fearless in its search for the truth. We are resolute that the BBC should not step back from its determination to investigate the facts in pursuit of the truth.

Through his passion and integrity Greg inspired us to make programmes of the highest quality and creativity.

We are dismayed by Greg's departure, but we are determined to maintain his achievements and his vision for an independent organisation that serves the public above all else.

There is coverage of this story at The Guardian - BBC - The Times

One of the great testimonies to the value of Greg's tenure as Director-General is that it was the "Making It Happen" team that put this together. Although much derided outside the BBC, "Making It Happen" has made a real difference to the way the BBC works, and the fact that this got turned around so quickly shows it. They were only seeking 4,000 people to offer their signatures and their money, but in the end they received contributions from around 10,000 people (about a third of BBC employees) and couldn't name everybody. Tom posted to say he didn't get on the list, I'm pleased to say I did, alongside Abi, Alice, Andrew B, Anna, Ant, Chris, Dan, Fiona, Gareth, Jem, Jim, Matt, Paul, Simon, Tom & Ulyssa.

Andrew Webb was also on the list, and is promising to archive on his site some of the unscheduled BBCi homepages that accompanied the whole Hutton Report story breaking.

Posted by Martin Belam, January 31, 2004
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