MORE TROUBLE FOR THE BBC:

Newsnight reporter Susan Watts today denounced the BBC’s “attempts to mould” her stories in what she believed was a misguided strategy to corroborate Andrew Gilligan’s controversial report on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

In an extraordinary development at the Hutton inquiry today, Watts revealed she felt compelled to seek separate legal representation because of pressure from her BBC managers to reveal David Kelly as her main source in order to corroborate Gilligan’s story – a move she felt “was misguided and false”. . . .

“I felt under some considerable pressure from the BBC. I also felt the purpose of that was to help corroborate Andrew Gilligan’s allegations, not for any news purposes,” said Watts.

Mr Dingemans then asked Watts whether she thought her Newsnight stories corroborated Gilligan’s allegations, including whether Alastair Campbell had inserted the 45 minute claim into last September’s Iraq dossier.

“No I don’t,” she replied. “I felt there were significant differences between my reports and his reports.”

Remember: it’s the coverup that gets you.