LONDON -- The British Broadcasting Corporation has one of the longest and respectable histories among the world's public-service broadcasting organizations. Since its establishment in the 1920s, it has built up an enviable reputation for independence and reliability.
This took a knock recently when the BBC was criticized by Lord Justice Hutton following his inquiry into allegations that it had wrongly accused the government of "sexing up" intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Hutton came to the conclusion that the BBC's report was unjustified and that the BBC had wrongly refused to correct its story.
Hutton's conclusions led to the resignation of both the chairman of the BBC governors and the corporation's director general as well as to an unprecedented apology from the BBC.