BBC debate
Sir: Michael Leapman's account in 'Lime grove conspirators' (26 March) is a sad distortion of the real and important debate that is going on in BBC news and current affairs, a debate in which both sides have much to learn from each other.
In particular he makes a couple of references to myself which I believe to be misleading. He calls me a 'disaffected ex-editor of Panorama' which could be interpreted as suggesting that I am a bitter victim of the Birt revolution. In fact I left Panorama in 1981 and the BBC in 1986, well before John Birt, the new DG or the chairman were appointed, and, unlike Michael, I continue to believe in its con- tinuing central importance to British broadcasting.
Secondly, he says that in 1979 the Current Affairs Department rallied around me, 'a member of the clique', simply out of esprit de corps, when I was under fire for breaching guidelines over Northern Ire- land.
I have never accepted that I breached the guidelines, and the main reason for the protest was that the journalists saw the BBC Governors as responding to govern- ment attempts to stop the corporation reporting fully and objectively the situation in Northern Ireland. I wish Michael had pointed out how much a commitment to such independent reporting is required today, in theory and in practice, given the incessant pressure from government.
Roger Bolton Editor, This Week, Thames Television, 306-316 Euston Road, London NW1
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