BBC accused of ducking interrogation on annual report after dropping press conference

The BBC was accused last night of dodging public scrutiny of its annual report after cancelling a press conference that last year embarrassed senior executives with questions on their pay.

Instead, Gavyn Davies, the chairman of the board, and Greg Dyke, the director general, will present the report direct to Parliament, then travel to Birmingham where the presenter Gaby Roslin will lead a question-and-answer session with a selected audience.

The schedule in effect rules out a formal session for journalists, a position unlikely to upset Mr Dyke, who is known to be exasperated by press coverage of the BBC.

Tim Yeo, the shadow Culture Secretary, said he thought it was important for different groups of people to be able to challenge the BBC on what it was doing. "One of these, clearly, is journalists, some of whom are very knowledgeable about the BBC," he said. "If it looks as though there is an attempt to deny that opportunity, I think that is a mistake."

A BBC spokesman said the arrangements would provide greater accountability than in previous years. Members of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee will get the chance to question the BBC's leaders as soon as the report is published on Wednesday. Journalists are allowed to attend the select committee hearing and BBC staff would be available for questioning on issues raised by the select committee en route to the public meeting.

"It's just a different way of doing it," the spokesman said. "The select committee is what Parliament has devised to scrutinise public bodies. And the governors were absolutely determined to do something out of London. They have a commitment to meeting people outside London because many licence fee-payers are outside London."

The audience had been recruited to reflect a diversity of viewers including those who did not normally make their voices heard, he added.

* Artsworld, the digital satellite channel devoted to performances of live arts, will announce today that it is closing, it was reported last night.

The channel, launched by the former Royal Opera House general director Sir Jeremy Isaacs 18 months ago, was unable to raise new funding from shareholders and blames the rival BBC Four for its demise.