BBC/Kelly:o jornalismo em questão "The future of journalism is at stake". É assim que vê o articulista e antigo jornalista da BBC Martin Bell, num artigo que assina hoje no jornal The Guardian, a propósito da "flagelação" da BBC, com as conclusões do relatório Hutton: "(...)But in its present difficulties, I hope that it [BBC] can learn to put away the sackcloth and ashes in a day or two. There is no case for overpenitence. For, although Andrew Gilligan's report on the Today programme was wrong in one important respect, the broad thrust of it was right. Gilligan was not the only journalist who reported that the government had exaggerated Iraq's weaponry in order to make the case for war, but his report was the one that stirred up the biggest row between the government and the BBC in the history of the many feuds between them. I think that Gilligan did us all some service and that the Hutton report, while blaming him so extensively, has been extraordinarily lenient on the government. (...) I profoundly hope that the BBC does not lose its nerve as a result of this reverse. In many ways it sets the standards by which other news broadcasters are judged. This is not the time for the BBC to play safe, although there may be every temptation to do so. Not only is its reputation for independence at stake, but the future of all journalism in this country. The way that broadcast journalism, and some print journalism, holds the government to account and never allows it to become too triumphalist, as it was yesterday, is important to our democracy - especially when the Labour government, while arguing for an unpopular war, had many cheerleaders in Britain's foreign-owned press. (...) It is important that the BBC, and indeed any news organisation, does not allow itself to be bullied into submission.(...)". (dica de Ponto Media)