Boxed in

Dominic Coles, the man who leads on the BBC's sporting rights, and is tipped by many as the heir apparent to finance boss Zarin Patel, seems to have got in a bit of an FOI tangle.

The Mail has the story that the BBC not only provided extremely rich F1 owner Bernie Ecclestone with Wimbledon tickets, just two weeks before the F1/BBC/Sky rights carve-up; it also tried not to tell the whole story. Dominic's internal email to the BBC's FOI team said "Rather than naming Bernie Ecclestone specifically, can we not say two tickets were offered for use by Formula 1 management ?"

A BBC spokesperson tried a gentle spin that shy Bernie was the main concern behind this question: "The BBC is open and transparent and takes its obligation in relation to Freedom of Information seriously. At the same time, we consider the privacy implications of any individuals to be named".