Greg Dyke: A service that stands for the best in the BBC
From a speech given by the director general of the BBC to the Radio Academy Festival, held in Birmingham
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Today's papers are again replaying the row over our reporting of those famous dossiers, hopefully for the last time. I don't want to spend too much time on this.
But let me say this, whatever the background of Alastair Campbell's attack on the BBC, to criticise the reputation of all BBC journalists by publicly accusing us of lying and bias is not acceptable, and I thank him for stepping back from that position on Monday.
This has now dominated the headlines for two weeks, and it is time for both sides to agree to disagree and move on.
Spats like these are inevitable in a healthy democracy - government and media have different roles that inevitably bring them into conflict.
What the dispute has highlighted is the importance of BBC radio in delivering impartial news. As someone who's come from TV and worked in TV current affairs, it is no surprise to me that this argument about the BBC's role has centred on a radio programme - the Today programme, which day after day does what is at the heart of the BBC - giving the audience the information to allow them to make their own judgements.
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