Dissent

One of the "wise heads" of BBC News (declaration: I used to work for him) has said DG Mark Thompson was wrong to go public with his opposition to News Corporation's bid to take full control of  BSkyB.

Speaking to students at Kent University's Centre for Journalism, Mitchell, Deputy Director of News,said that by signing a letter to Vince Cable last month urging that the deal be blocked, the DG had compromised the perception of his impartiality as editor-in-chief.

 “Above all the BBC has to be impartial, and, almost as important, be seen to be impartial on every issue of controversy in the UK. It is inevitable that we will cover the growth and role of News Corps going forward as part of our journalism. Mark Thompson is the editor-in-chief, and I feel that that letter compromises the perception of his impartiality.”


“We’re doing journalism about Sky, Sky quite rightly complain, where does the complaint go at the moment? It goes up through the chain to the Director-General. That means that, for me, he slightly compromises his role in life by signing a letter in the way that he did.”

Full report here.