Keeping a secret

A senior strategist has left the BBC, reports The Independent, in the wake of an internal investigation into the leak of "Putting Quality First" to someone in News International, which resulted in The Times' scoop of 26 February.

It was no secret that Mark Thompson read the riot act to his management team after the leak - so whoever it was had a chance to "fess up" some time ago. And though the BBC hasn't named the culprit, there aren't so many in the senior strategy team for one to go unnoticed. What we won't know is whether the rushing of the document to staff and public straight after the leak means it might have been changed before the 6Music furore, rather than after....

The BBC's playing of the press in the past has involved selective briefings, but The Independent's sources indicate that was not the case this time. However, the story of the sacking itself seems to include selective briefing, with the line that the leak was the work of a "rogue employee".