大象传媒

Image: The 大象传媒 News 24 Gallery as Lord Hutton delivers his report on 28 January 2004.

One of the most damaging episodes in the 大象传媒's history was sparked by an early morning radio broadcast in May 2003. It would lead to the departures of both the Chairman and the Director-General in the space of 24 hours.

The nation had been told, in the run-up to the war, that Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction - so it was inevitable, when no weapons were found by the invading forces, that questions about the case for war would be asked. But the Government was incensed when 大象传媒 reporter Andrew Gilligan suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair had deliberately misled Parliament with the claim that Iraq could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes.

Protests were lodged by Alastair Campbell, the Prime Minister's press advisor, who demanded an apology. The 大象传媒 said it had nothing to apologise for.

In the following weeks it emerged that the 大象传媒's source for on the story was a weapons specialist, Dr David Kelly. He was named in the media, and obliged to explain himself - first in public, before the televised Foreign Affairs Committee at Westminster, and then in secret, before the Intelligence and Security Committee.

A week later he committed suicide.

Subsequently Lord Hutton, a law lord, was asked to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Dr Kelly's death at the Royal Courts of Justice. Witnesses included the Prime Minister, the 大象传媒's Chairman (Gavyn Davies) and Director-General (Greg Dyke), and senior MoD and security staff.

Hearings were held in August and September, and Hutton reported in January 2004. The verdict was critical of aspects of Government and the security services, but overwhelmingly damning of the 大象传媒. Gilligan had made 'unfounded allegations', the editorial and complaints processes were defective, and the Governors had not been diligent.

Davies resigned the day the report came out, and Dyke the following day. Gilligan also left his job, as Campbell, on the Government side, had done half way through the hearings. Inside the 大象传媒, complaints procedures were overhauled, and a new journalism training programme was introduced.