Free Press in the Uk......

[The_Pikeman]

It's great to see Tony Blair practice what he preaches in Iraq
Home Office'tried to axe' BBC police race exposé

In what BBC sources describe as 'unprecedented' pressure from such a senior Whitehall figure, John Gieve, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, wrote to Davies last month.

He questioned the methods employed by undercover reporter Mark Daly in the film The Secret Policeman, in a move viewed by senior BBC executives as an attempt to get the programme pulled.

In a development which will again lead to accusations that the Government has been caught trying to bully the BBC into submission, Gieve accused the BBC of using 'a degree of deceit that might be necessary in dealing with a totalitarian regime' in the letter dated 12 September.

He goes on to accuse Daly of 'misleading' his police manager and other recruits in the letter. The chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, Mike Todd, also threatened the BBC with a 'Hutton-style' inquiry if the programme were to go ahead.

Senior BBC sources said that for a Permanent Secretary to write directly to the BBC chairman was 'highly unusual'. 'It was clearly interpreted as direct pressure to get the programme pulled,' said the source. 'In these circumstances the normal procedure would be to write to the director-general, not the chairman. The chairman should not - under normal circumstances - get involved in an editorial matter beyond ensuring that the director- general is across it.

'This was a frank attempt to apply pressure from a senior official of the Home Office, followed by senior policemen and topped off by the Home Secretary himself,' the source added.

At a meeting with the director general, Greg Dyke, and other senior executives, chief constable Todd warned of a fresh inquiry into the BBC's journalism and threatened the withdrawal of police co-operation with the corporation.

He suggested that police forces could withdraw co-operation from the BBC's Crimewatch programme.

The meeting, a week before the programme's transmission, was also attended by Dyke, Stephen Whittle, director of editorial policy, and John Willis, head of factual programming.

-How.

[anaemic]

howski get your fat sheep shagging ass back in irc, i havent seen you in ages, and if i have to spend 3 years living in your country you best be there to drive me places and enroll me in medieval reconstructions at least

[BobTheFearlessFish]

john. you have a way with words.

and now back on topic. the government and the bbc really arent getting along at the moment are they.

[MetalMickey]

That documentary was insane

[G-Fresh]

Nah, if anything the reaction to it was insane. Racism is rampant in this country, why people assumed the police would be any different is a complete mystery to me.

[The_Pikeman]

Nah, if anything the reaction to it was insane. Racism is rampant in this country, why people assumed the police would be any different is a complete mystery to me.

It's a sad fact that thats a true statement

howski get your fat sheep shagging ass back in irc, i havent seen you in ages, and if i have to spend 3 years living in your country you best be there to drive me places and enroll me in medieval reconstructions at least

Yea I have been neglecting the IRC a bit ..... must go on again
-How.