Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Director-General Mark Thompson has written a letter published in The Sunday Times today that states the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's position on the Newscorp/BskyB takeover bid. The letter is published below.
Martin Ivens ("The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ has a dog in this Murdoch fight" Comment, last week) is mistaken in two respects about the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ and News Corporation's bid to buy the whole of BSkyB.
The first is that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ was or is opposed to the bid itself. We weren't and aren't. Our point was only ever that the bid should be referred by ministers to the relevant competition authorities.
The second error is in relation to the implication that any corporate position the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ took on the bid was likely to impair our ability to cover the story with strict impartiality.
When it became clear in 2010 that the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ would take a corporate view about the referral of News Corporation bid, I recused myself from my duties as editor-in-chief as regards both the bid and the wider phone-hacking story and handed responsibility for both to senior colleagues within our news division. That separation remains in place.
Mark Thompson
Director-General Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ